Only six months’ worth of accrued pension rights, according to the National Pension Commission (PenCom), have not yet been paid by the Federal Government under the Defined Benefit Scheme (DBS).
This was disclosed in Abuja by the Director-General of PenCom, Aisha Dahir-Umar at the interactive session on 2022-2025 MTEF and FSP, organized by the Senate Committee on Finance.
Senators had questioned Dahir-Umar on the possibilities of investing pension funds for the benefit of the economy, the claimed delay in the payment of pension benefits to retirees, and suspected misconduct on the part of pension fund administrators (PFAs).
She claimed that because of the government’s urgent efforts to fulfill the backlog of accrued rights, delayed payment of accrued rights will soon be a thing of the past.
She claimed that during the previous 17 years, the government has routinely paid accrued rights while maintaining that it only owed for the prior six months.
In the last 17 years, she claimed, the government has paid accrued rights totaling N49 billion monthly. She also added that the Federal Government, through the Debt Management Office (DMO), was close to paying off the remaining outstanding rights.
She predicted that the subject of accumulated rights will soon be history.
Regarding the N14 trillion pension fund, she stated that PenCom was pleased to spend the money on appealing and sustainable products with full participation from the federal ministry of finance and the government because several assurances were needed.
According to her, PenCom had invested 63% of the pension fund, with N9.5 trillion going into Federal Government securities, N1.2 trillion into equity, and 35% going into money markets.
She said that the money wasn’t sitting around doing nothing but generating more income for the contributors.
She explained that employees who were eligible for retirement but failed to show up for enrollment or verification ran the danger of not receiving their benefits when due.
