The Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD) revealed Tuesday that 265 parastatals’ total pension liabilities under the Defined Benefit Scheme (DBS) totaled over N90 billion.
Alhaji Yusuf Umar, the PTAD Director of the Parastatals Pension Department, disclosed this in Abuja during a training for the Pension Correspondents Association of Nigeria (PENCAN).
Pensioners of the former Nigeria Telecommunications Limited/MTEL had the greatest outstanding obligation of N73 billion, he added, with over 11,000 pensioners, while Delta Steel Company had a debt of N7.9 billion.
NICON Insurance had a liability of N4.9 billion, Nigeria-Reinsurance had a liability of N1.1 billion, and New Nigeria Newspaper had a pension liability of N2. 9 billion, among other things.
Other parastatals include the Nigeria National Shipping Line (NNSL), which owes N1.2 billion to 953 pensioners, the Aluminium Smelter Company Limited (ALSCON), which owes N467 million to 2,000 pensioners, the Nigeria Aviation Handling Company (NAHCO), which owes N467 million to 935 pensioners, and the Federal Housing Authority (FHA), which owes N389 million to 935 pensioners. Umar stated that the N90 billion would cover 92,000 federal government pensioners.
Despite the massive debt, he claimed that significant progress had been made in reducing liabilities.
He said that the Biometric Verification Number (BVN) has changed the game in terms of screening out phantom retirees.
He noted that the administration had ordered all pensioners to create accounts with traditional Deposit Money Banks after removing pensioners who operated microfinance banks.
He also revealed that the federal government has saved over N20 billion by removing ineligible pensioners from the payroll.
