The Pensions Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD) on Thursday, declared payment completion of the last lap of the 196-month-old pension arrears owed to pensioners of two defunct/privatized government companies; Insurance PLC and Delta Steel Company.
PTAD Executive Secretary, Dr Chioma Ejikeme, made this known on Thursday, at a press conference held at the Directorate’s headquarters in Abuja.
“Pensions Transitional Arrangement Directorate is delighted to announce the complete liquidation of the outstanding 56months of inherited pension liabilities for NICON Insurance and 49months owed ex-workers of Delta Steel Company.
“For NICON Insurance, a total of 100months were inherited, while a total of 96 months were also inherited. Totalling; N7, 053, 150, 468 ( Seven Billion, Fifty-Three Million, One Hundred and Fifty Thousand and Sixty Eight Naira Fourteen Kobo)”. She said in her statement.
In her further explanation, Dr Chioma Ejikeme said; “In February 2017, PTAD received a directive from Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning to take over the management of pensions and severance benefit liabilities of ex-workers of some defunct/privatized agencies, including Delta Steel Company, NICON Insurance PLC, Savannah Sugar Company, NITEL/MTEL, Aluminium Smelter Company, Nigeria Aviation Handling Company (NAHCO), among others. These companies were commercial entities of the Federal Government that were privatized or liquidated under the Bureau of Public Enterprise 1999-2005 Public Enterprise Privatization/Commercialisation Reform.
“This exercise resulted in the disengagement of a considerable number of Public Sector employees. In February when PTAD was given the directive to onboard pensioners from these agencies, they were inherited with unpaid monthly pensions and arrears ranging from 84 to 219 months while some of the agencies entitled to one-off payments had not been paid.
“Since 2017, PTAD has been liquidating the unfunded pension liabilities of these agencies. As of December 2021, PTAD had completely liquidated the inherited pension liabilities of New Nigerian Newspapers, the Nigerian Re-Insurance Corporation, made one-off payments to Savannah Sugar, the Aluminium Smelter Company beneficiaries and their next of kin and also Nigerian Aviation Handling Company beneficiaries and had settled some months of arrears of others.”
She added, “It is worthy to note at this point that the inherited unfunded liabilities for these defunct agencies at inception was to the tune of N95, 000, 000, 000. Currently, these defunct agencies have a total monthly pension bill of N2, 298, 893, 321, 08 (Two Billion, Two Hundred and Ninety-Eight Million, Eight Hundred and Ninety-Three Thousand, Three Hundred and Twenty-one Naira) and an annual bill of N62, 073, 219, 358, 32 ( Sixty-Two Billion, Seventy-Three Million, Two Hundred and Nineteen Thousand, Three Hundred and Fifty-Eight Naira), representing 44% of the total monthly/annual pension bill of the Parastatals Pension Department. As at today, we have settled a total of over N39 billion of the inherited N95 billion, with N3.4 billion of the amount making up one-off payments. These payments are ongoing.
“I had assured earlier and on several occasions assured our esteemed pensioners from the defunct and privatized agencies that PTAD was working tirelessly to ensure their retirement and severance benefits were paid as soon as possible. I am glad that these efforts are now yielding results, and I must commend our pensioners for their patience and support all these years.
On the “I Am Alive” programme aimed at easing verification of pensioners and eradicating fraud in the pension administration and management, the PTAD ES said, “Having concluded with the Pilot Phase of the I Am Alive confirmation solution, that was launched sometime last year, may I also use this opportunity to inform the media and our pensioners that the Directorate has concluded plans for the full roll-out of the “I Am Alive” confirmation solution, which is the way forward in terms of pensioner’s aliveness validation under the Defined Benefit Scheme.
“The I AM ALIVE confirmation solution is a web-based solution that we have designed and launched to enable our pensioners easily confirm their aliveness from the comfort of their homes or neighbourhood using either a smartphone or a computer system.
“The full details for the roll-out of the I Am Alive confirmation solution will be announced in due course. We can all agree that this solution will eliminate the risk and stress involved in travelling to various locations for field verifications, and demonstrates PTAD’s desire to make life easier for our senior citizens and ensure they continue to enjoy their retirement without stress.”
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