PTAD Pays N610bn Pension In 7 Years
The Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD) has disclosed that over N610 billion has been paid in monthly pensions from January 2015 to December 2021.
Executive secretary, Chioma Ejikeme, disclosed this to State House correspondents during the weekly ministerial organised by the presidential communications team at the presidential Villa.
According to her, the agency has achieved 90 per cent of its mandate .
She said “through the unwavering support of President Muhammadu Buhari who has been adjudged by pensioners as the most pensioner-friendly President in Nigeria, and administration which has made Pension an unwritten first-line charge.
“The able supervision of the minister for Finance, Budget and National Planning and our Regulator PenCom, PTAD’s management team has been able to achieve the following: Full implementation of the TSA which has ensured the sanctity of pension funds andenshrined transparency in Pension payments.
“Regular monthly payments of pension without fail since inception as and when due.
“Payments of long outstanding arrears to pensioners across all the pension departments, most significantly the huge arrears inherited from the defunct/ privatised agencies.
“Regular engagements with Pensioners and
other stakeholders across all the six geopolitical zones, to update pensioners on activities of the directorate.”
She also disclosed the directorate has repatriated £26.5 million from Crown Agents Investment Managers Limited of the United Kingdom being the left over of the money used to pay British colonial officers who worked in Nigeria.
According to her, also recovered as legacy pension are assets by the directorate is the sum of N17.85 billion from Boards of Trustees and Underwriters of Treasury Funded Federal Parastatals.
She explained that the monies were used to defray the inherited arrears of defunct agencies and to pay-off inherited outstanding pension arrears.
Ejikeme, also disclosed that 303 exBiafran Police Officers are now in the pension payroll.
She said “Well, we call them ‘war affected’, they are the policemen who served on the Biafran side during the Civil War. Currently, we have 303 of them on our payroll.”
Speaking more on clearing long outstanding arrears to pensioners across all the pension departments, most significantly, the huge arrears inherited from the defunct privatized agencies.
She said PTAD inherited 268,897 pensioners on payrolls of the old Pension Office at inception but through certification, it has created a centralized database complete with pensioners personal information, biometrics and career documents, adding that after verification, as at October 2022, 226,328 pensioners are on the payroll.
The PTAD boss also said that 242,894 pensioners were verified between 2015 and 2019 and that 49,409 people were removed from the payroll between 2015 and 2022, while 40,918 were reinstated to payroll between 2015 and 2022.
She mentioned some of the defunct privatised agencies that have been paid to include, NAHCO which has been liquidated and has 661 were paid one-offpayment, ALSCON also liquidated and 1031 pensioners paid in a one-off-payment.
Others are Savanna Bank, 1,596 pensioners in a one-off-payment and liquidated, Nigeria National Shipping Line which has 552 pensioners with inherited arrears 92 months but has been liquidated, Delta Steel with 3,657 pensioners and 96 months inherited arrears but now liquidated and Nitel/Mtel which has its 11,239 pensioners with inherited 84 months arrears and 21 months paid leaving a balance of 63 months among others.
On the implementation of the Consequential Pension Adjustment arising from minimum wage increase in 2019, Dr. Ejikeme said “the result is an average minimum pension of N8,638.74 as against about N500 in the past.