Matthew Otoijagha
The Executive Secretary, Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate, Mrs. Sharon Ikeazor, has said that the directorate is making efforts to have health insurance for its pensioners.
She said this while speaking on its current and future initiatives during PTAD’s 2018 South-West Stakeholders’ Forum for retirees in Lagos. “Our initiatives include continued engagement with the National Health Insurance Scheme for enrolment of pensioners,” she said.
Following the completion of the civil service verification, she said all eligible pensioners under that category had been enrolled and the payment of monthly pension to them had since commenced. She said this brought in over 19,000 new pensioners, who had hitherto been denied their constitutional rights to pension, into the Defined Benefit Scheme.
“The directorate has also successfully verified, computed and put on payroll nearly 5,000 pensioners of defunct/privatized agencies such as Delta Steel Company, Aladja, Federal Housing Authority of Nigeria, Nigeria Reinsurance, and Nigerian Defence Academy Civilians,” Ikeazor said.
The executive secretary said that pensioners of NICON Insurance Plc. would commence receiving monthly pension in September 2018, while work on the enrolment of NITEL pensioners had reached advanced stages.
According to her, this achievement had lifted many families out of miseries that lasted for up to 13 years in some instances. She said that the verification of other agencies under same category would be done alongside other parastatals beginning in the fourth quarter of 2018. According to her, PTAD has paid pension and gratuity arrears to over 15,000 newly enrolled civil service pensioners.
“There is payment of additional 33 per cent arrears to pensioners of police, civil service and parastatals pension departments. With the last round of payments, the 33 per cent liabilities for police pensioners have now been fully settled, joining Customs, Immigration and Prisons Pension Department’s pensioners in this category,” she said.
Ikeazor also said the directorate had applied for the release of funds set aside in the 2019 budget to settle the remaining arrears of civil service and parastatals pensioners. She said the purpose of the stakeholders’ forum series was to provide updates on the activities of PTAD and interact directly with its pensioners in order to obtain objective feedback from them in an interpersonal manner.
In the 10 months since the first forum in October 2017, she said, the directorate had recorded many milestone achievements based on the positive feedback it got from pensioners and other stakeholders.
She said PTAD would continue to ensure prompt payment of monthly pension to all genuine pensioners.
“Consequently, the dateline of 15th day of every month for the completion of all departmental payrolls will remain sacrosanct,” she said. According to her, its ultimate goal in this regard is to ensure that payment of pensions is prioritized over the payment of salaries, not only by the Federal Government, but by all tiers of government.