…PTAD settles entitlements of retirees from 8 defunct firms
BY VICTOR YOUNG
THE Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate, PTAD, has put smiles on the faces of retirees of no fewer than eight defunct Federal Government parastatals as part of the efforts to clear accumulated pensions and other benefits.
This came as the directorate has restored 4,069 out of 21,000 unverified pensioners dropped from the payroll in October 2020 with the attendant arrears paid.
Among the Federal Government parastatals that PTAD fully or partially settled the pension arrears and other benefits include 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.
The Executive Secretary of PTAD, Dr. Chioma Ejikeme, who disclosed this at the South-East Stakeholders’ Forum, in Enugu, Enugu State, noted that despite the COVID-19 lockdown, PTAD continued “to pay monthly pensions promptly, resolve complaints, cleared 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.
“Most recently, on the 14th of December, 2021, PTAD completed the payment of all outstanding inherited liabilities due to ex-workers of two of the defunct agencies, namely: Nigeria Reinsurance Corporation (total 126 months of inherited liabilities completely liquidated) and New Nigeria Newspaper Limited (total 219 months of inherited liabilities completely liquidated). We also settled a significant portion of the outstanding inherited liabilities due to ex-workers of another three defunct agencies: NICON Insurance, Delta Steel Company Limited and NITEL/MTEL.
“Also in December 2021, we implemented the approved 9.7 per cent Pension Increment for pensioners of the defunct PHCN. This increment took effect from June 2016. The accrued arrears were paid along with the six months balance of the arrears as a result of the consequential adjustment to pensions. The total amount paid to this sector was N6.9 billion
“In the year 2020, I declared a state of emergency in the Civil Service Pensions Department and approved the commencement of an expanded re-validation and re-computation exercise in a bid to on-board verified pensioners not on payroll, clear all outstanding pension arrears and resolve all complaints of short payments and outstanding gratuities for the Civil Service Pensioners and their Next of Kin (NoK). At the end of the project, the Directorate was able to review, compute, re-compute […]