PTAD Executive Secretary holds Press Conference

The Executive Secretary of Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD), Dr. Chioma Ejikeme held a Press Conference at PTAD head office in Abuja, today, 9th September, 2020.

Below is the full Speech from the Press Conference.

PTAD Executive Secretary, Dr. Chioma Ejikeme’s Speech at the Directorate’s 2020 Press Conference On Wednesday, 9th September, 2020 at the Head Office, Abuja.

The Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate’s (PTAD) establishment as a Federal Agency is in compliance with the provision of Section 30 (2) (a) of the 2004 Pension Reform Act now repealed and re-enacted in Section 42 (1) of the Pension Reform Act 2014. The Act provides for the consolidation of the Old Defined Benefit Pension Schemes for pensioners who did not transit to the Contributory Pension Scheme and their subsequent management by PTAD.

The Directorate is statutorily responsible for the management of pensions of the old pension offices of the Police, Customs, Immigration & Prisons, Civil Service and the Boards of Trustees of Parastatals and Agencies.

I was appointed the Executive Secretary of PTAD in August 2019 following the appointment of Barr. Sharon Ikeazor, the immediate past Executive Secretary as a Minister of State for Environment by His Excellency, President Muhammadu Buhari.

My predecessor, Barr. Sharon Ikeazor laid a solid foundation upon which we have been building a super structure and will continue to build. Within a period of one year, Covid-19 notwithstanding, we have been able to bring smiles to the faces of our pensioners and Noks. We have sustained and initiated reforms that have strengthened the administration of the Defined Benefit Scheme in the Country.

The key activities of the Directorate over the period include:

1. Completion of the Nationwide verification exercise for the Parastatal Pensioners (PaPD) and continuous verification conducted mainly in our Lagos and Abuja Offices and in some of our other 8 State Offices.

2. Computation of Pensioners Benefits

• Continuous computation of monthly pension payment
• Restoration of pensioners hitherto not on payroll to Monthly Pension Payroll
• Monthly Pension Adjustments – Overpayments and underpayments
• Payment of Arrears to Pensioners on the Payroll
• Review, computation and payment of death benefits to the Next of kin of deceased Pensioners.

3. Complaints Resolution

4. Logging & Archiving of Verified Pensioners’ files

Across the departments, we have been able to achieve the following:

1. The regular payment of monthly pension benefits to our Pensioners across the four (4) Operational Departments which has contributed immensely to the welfare of our Pensioners/their families and to alleviating their sufferings.

2. Continuous complaint resolution which has considerably reduced complaints from pensioners and has revived public trust in Government’s ability to professionally administer pension payment.

3. Between July 2019 and August 2020, PTAD paid a total of over 96 Billion Naira across all the Operational Departments.

• The sum of over N77 billion was paid as monthly pensions payments to 244,643 pensioners as at July 2020.
• 87, 842 pensioners were paid arrears and gratuities of over N19billion.
• The sum of over 670 million was paid to 418 Next of Kins of deceased pensioners.

The above payments include the balance of 33% arrears for the Parastatal Pensioners which had been outstanding since 2010 and was fully paid to the Pensioners and NoKs in November/December 2019.

4. Payment of Inherited Liabilities
The Directorate made payments in December 2019 as well as in the 2nd and 3rd quarters of 2020. This payment was made to various groups of pensioners to reduce the inherited liabilities from the following:

S/NO	AGENCY	ARREARS SETTLED	NO. OF PENSIONERS	Remarks
1.	New Nigeria Newspapers	12 Months	501	2019
2.	NICON Insurance	12 Months	1,038	2019
3.	Nig-Reinsurance	12 Months	287	2019
4	Delta Steel Company	12 Months	3,651	2019
5.	NITEL	1 Month	11,331	2019
6	NAHCO	One-Off	306	Payments continue in batches in 2020

5. Following the successful conclusion of the Nation-wide Parastatals pensioners’ Verification Exercise in November 2019 and mop up exercise through the In-House verification for those that missed the field exercise, a total of 21,227 pensioners on the payroll were found to have not been verified. PTAD has sent the list of these pensioners to the Pension Unions/Associations/Agencies and the information is also on the PTAD website to enable pensioners who are on the list and alive to make themselves available for verification. Deceased pensioners and unresponsive pensioners on the list will be removed from the payroll from October 2020.

6. In 2019, PTAD collaborated with Nigeria Interbank Settlement System (NIBSS) on Bank Verification Number (BVN) Authentication. The NIBSS BVN validation exercise led to the suspension of 5,834 pensioners from the payroll. However, 2,416 of those removed have been restored after undergoing positive review and validation.

7. There has been continuous expansion of Information Technology infrastructure for effective service delivery in all our state offices to make the Directorate more accessible to Pensioners.

8. Strong anti-corruption message that comes directly from the Executive Management on the critical importance of accountability and integrity in PTAD operations. Also, PTAD embarks on a serious anti-fraud fight against pension scammers to protect the pensioners.

9. An appropriate business continuity programme is being implemented to manage unforeseen risk/losses that could occur as a result of IT equipment damage from natural disasters, human error, hacking, system failure, cybercrime etc.,

10. PTAD has been receiving positive recognitions from Civil Society Organisations such as the Public and Private Development Centre (PPDC), BudgIT, Connected Development (CODE), Right to Know (R2K), Basic Right Watch (BRW) and Media Right Agenda (MRA) on PTAD’s efforts in promoting government accountability and transparency.

11. PTAD is working assiduously on the recovery of legacy funds and assets in the custody of 12 Insurance Underwriters belonging to the defunct Agencies. They were previously responsible for the pension payments to Federal Government Parastatals and the universities.

Out of the 12 Insurance Underwriters identified by the Directorate who are in custody of legacy funds and assets, the Directorate has filed an action under the undefended list procedure for the recovery of legacy funds and assets against Four (4) Insurance Underwriters namely: Goldlink Insurance Plc, Unic Insurance Plc, Standard Alliance Life Insurance Plc and Niger Insurance Plc.

Two (2) out of the Four (4) cases have been decided in favour of the Directorate as follows –

(a) The Federal High Court, Lagos gave judgment in the case against Goldlink Insurance PLC in favour of PTAD to the tune of N1,238,234,383.96 (One Billion, Two Hundred and Thirty – Eight Million, Two Hundred and Thirty-Four Thousand, Three Hundred and Eighty – Three Naira, Ninety – Six Kobo) being the outstanding balance of the Federal Government Legacy Funds and Assets in the custody of the Defendant with 10% post judgment interest until the judgment sum is fully liquidated; and

(b) On the 2nd day of April 2019, the Federal High Court, Lagos entered judgement in favour of the Directorate in the sum of N829, 788, 380.19 (Eight Hundred and Twenty – Nine Million, Seven Hundred and Eighty- Eight Thousand, Three Hundred and Eighty Naira, Nineteen Kobo) being outstanding balance of the Federal Government Legacy Funds and Assets in the custody of Unic Insurance company.

12. Staff Training.
The Directorate has continued to organise training sessions for staff to further enhance their quality of service delivery. Some of these trainings are focused on ‘Enhancing the Efficiency and Quality of Service Delivery’ and ‘Teamwork and Collaboration’.

13. Future Plans:

• War against pension scammers and fraudsters.
• Recovery of legacy funds and assets
• I’m Alive Project
• Health Insurance for Pensioners
• A permanent site for the Directorate
• Pensioners welfare through sustained benefit payment
• Staff welfare.

Successful activities carried out by Operational Departments

S/N	Item	Total	Departmental Figures
1	Parastatal Pensioners Nationwide Field Verification Exercise	76,064	76,064
2	In house Pensioners’ Verification Exercise for those that missed the field exercise	4,223	CSPD – 908 PaPD – 3,150 PPD –  76 CIPPD – 20
3	Re computation of Benefit for quality assurance	9,030	CSPD – 8,597 PaPD  – 261 PPD – 53 CIPPD – 119
4	Addition of verified and eligible Pensioners to the Payroll	5,473	CSPD – 2,729 PaPD  – 2,664 PPD  – 56 CIPPD -24
5	Removal of Pensioners from the Payroll due to death, incomplete records and unqualified.	6,924	CSPD  – 149 PaPD   – 6,597 PPD   – 78 CIPPD  -100
6	Total Pensioners on the Payroll	244,643	CSPD  – 107,039 PaPD  – 109,943 PPD  – 15,866 CIPPD – 11,795
7	Pension Arrears Payment	31,389	CSPD   – 11,886 PaPD  – 19,337 PPD    – 100 CIPPD – 66
8	Next of Kin Payment	418	CSPD – 309 PaPD – 40 PPD   – 53 CIPPD – 16
9	Complaints Resolutions	18,260	CSPD  – 14,615 PaPD-  2,505 PPD   – 153 CIPPD – 987