As part of its efforts to clear accumulated pensions and other benefits, the Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD) has put smiles on the faces of retirees from no less than eight defunct Federal Government parastatals.
This happened as the directorate said that 4,069 of the 21,000 unverified pensioners who were withdrawn from the payroll in October 2020 had their benefits restored and their arrears refunded.
Nigerian Aviation Handling Company, NAHCO; Aluminium Smelter Company of Nigeria, ALSCON; Savannah Sugar Company; NICON Insurance; Delta Steel Company, DSC Limited; NITEL/MTEL; Nigeria Reinsurance Corporation; New Nigeria Newspaper Limited and Assurance Bank are among the Federal Government parastatals that PTAD fully or partially settled pension arrears and other benefits.
Despite the COVID-19 lockdown, PTAD continued “to pay monthly pensions promptly, resolve complaints, clear arrears, paid death benefits to some Next-Of-Kin and one-off payments of some defunct agencies such as NAHCO, ALSCON, as well as ex-workers of Savannah Sugar Company who have submitted themselves for verification,” according to PTAD Executive Secretary Dr. Chioma Ejikeme, who disclosed this at the South-East Stakeholders’
“Most recently, on December 14, 2021, PTAD concluded the settlement of all outstanding inherited liabilities due to ex-workers of two defunct agencies, namely Nigeria Reinsurance Corporation (total 126 months of inherited liabilities totally liquidated) and New Nigeria Newspaper Limited” (total 219 months of inherited liabilities completely liquidated). We also settled a large percentage of the remaining inherited liabilities owed to former employees of three other collapsed companies: NICON Insurance, Delta Steel Company Limited, and NITEL/MTEL.
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“We also applied the agreed 9.7% Pension Increment for defunct PHCN retirees in December 2021.” This increase went into effect in June of 2016. As a result of the consequential adjustment to pensions, the accrued arrears were paid along with the six-month balance of the arrears. ₦6.9 billion was paid to this sector in total.
“The post-verification validation for the parastatal Pension Department is proceeding. In October 2020, over 21,000 unconfirmed pensioners were removed from the payroll. So far, 4,069 people who were fired in October have been authenticated, reinstated on the payroll, and their arrears have been reimbursed. Pensioners who have been validated but are not on the payroll are still being onboarded. So far, 358 pensioners from parastatals who were not on the payroll have been brought on board.
“We have concluded the payment of arrears incurred as a result of the consequential adjustment to pension as authorized by President Muhammadu Buhari to three out of four operational departments,” Dr. Ejikeme continued. We have three months’ worth of arrears for Civil Service retirees, which we will clear very soon.”
