PTAD Holds Stakeholders Engagement Forum for South-West, provides updates on PTAD activities and future plans
The commitment of the Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD) to the welfare of our pensioners remains sacrosanct, and we shall continue our meetings and engagement with the various Pension Unions to ensure quality service delivery.
This is according to the Executive Secretary, PTAD, Dr Chioma Ejikeme at the South-West Stakeholders Engagement Forum which held in the Ondo state capital, Akure.
In attendance where representatives from the National Pension Commission (PenCom), the Public Complaints Commission (PCC), SERVICOM as well as pensioners from across the pension operations departments resident in Ondo, Osun, Oyo, Ekiti, Lagos and Ogun States.
Read the Executive Secretary of PTAD Full Speech below
SPEECH DELIVERED BY THE EXECUTIVE SECRETARY OF PTAD, DR. CHIOMA EJIKEME AT THE SOUTH-WEST STAKEHOLDERS ENGAGEMENT FORUM, HELD AT AKURE, ONDO STATE ON MAY 4, 2023.
I warmly welcome you all to this Stakeholders Forum which we have organised to meet and interact with our pensioners and Stakeholders in the South-West Zone of the country.
Let me start by expressing my appreciation to you all for honouring our invitation and making out time to be here to meet and interact with us. We are truly grateful, and it is my sincere belief that our interaction here will be of immense benefit to us all.
The Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD) periodically organizes this kind of forum to keep our Stakeholders updated on our activities, as well as our future plans. It is important that we carry you along with what we do, interact with you and get your feedback.
PTAD’s determination to change the narrative as far as pension administration under the Defined Benefits Scheme (DBS) in Nigeria is concerned is irrevocable and “so far so good”. It is pertinent to note that PTAD has intentionally and consistently been working on achieving positive and sustainable change in DBS Pension management for the almost 10 years of its operation. PTAD would be ten by August of 2023.
You may recall that the Defined Benefits Scheme in the past was fraught with allegations of fraud, corruption and inefficiencies prior to the establishment of the Directorate. However, the processes and controls that have been put in place since the establishment of PTAD have contributed immensely to the change being witnessed today in the management of the Defined Benefits Pension scheme.
The hard work of PTAD over the years is now paying off and in the course of the presentations we are going to make here today, you will get to understand the enormity of the challenges inherited by PTAD at inception. You will then subsequently appreciate the sheer volume of overhaul that PTAD has had to carry out, in order to get to where we are today.
Our journey from field verifications, mobile verifications, to putting together a solid database of pensioners, benefit computation, ensuring the regular payment of monthly pensions and paying long overdue pension arrears to pensioners, has been a progressive one filled with creativity, dedication, commitment, persistence and resulting in milestone achievements. It is not yet a perfect situation, albeit PTAD has made giant strides and is committed to continuing to make giant strides.
Since our last Stakeholders Forum for the South-West held in Ibadan, Oyo State in March 2022, PTAD has carried out a series of activities which include:
- Complete payment of arrears arising as a result of the consequential adjustment to pensions as a result of the increase in minimum wage of April 2019 to the four operational departments in the Directorate.
- Complete liquidation of the 126 months outstanding liabilities due to ex-workers of Nigeria Reinsurance Corporation
- Complete payment of the 219 months of inherited liabilities to Ex-workers of New Nigeria Newspaper Limited
- Complete payment of the 100 months of inherited liabilities to Ex-workers of NICON Insurance
- Complete payment of the 96 months of inherited liabilities to Ex-workers of Delta Steel Company (DSC)
- Implemented the 9.7% increment to Ex-PHCN workers with attendant arrears paid.
- Payment of a total of 48 months of the 84 months inherited arrears owed NITEL/MTEL pensioners in December 2022, leaving a balance of 36 months for complete liquidation.
Through the unwavering support of President Muhammadu Buhari, PTAD has completely liquidated the inherited unfunded liabilities of all the Defunct/Privatised Agencies handed over to PTAD in 2017, with the exception of NITEL/MTEL with a balance of 36 months, which we are fully committed to liquidating.
Following the launch of the “I AM Alive” confirmation solution and the successful completion of the Pilot Phase where we tested the application on 50,000 randomly-selected pensioners from the four (4) Operational Departments and the six (6) Geo-political zones, I wish to announce that PTAD has, on the 14th of April, fully rolled out the solution for the use of our Pensioners.
To ensure an efficient and effective delivery, the availability of the Confirmation program has been staggered according to departments as follows:
| S/N | Department | Start Date | End Date |
| 1 | Police Pensioners | 14th April, 2023 | 13th October, 2023 |
| 2 | Customs, Immigration and Prisons Pensioners | 1st June, 2023 | 31st December, 2023 |
| 3 | Civil Service Pensioners | 1st July, 2023 | 31st January, 2024 |
| 4 | Parastatals Pensioners | 1st August, 2023 | 28th February, 2024 |
Pensioners are to please take note of the above dates. Any changes to these dates will be communicated through the Press and other appropriate channels.
PTAD has provided a six-month grace period for every department and their pensioners to complete their “I Am Alive” Confirmation (IAAC) Solution. Kindly note that PTAD has trained Pension Desk Officers from the Ministries, Departments and Agencies our pensioners retired from, as well as the various Representatives of Pension Unions’ on the use of this application, and they will assist pensioners who are unable to carry out the confirmation on their own.
The commitment of PTAD to the welfare of our pensioners remains sacrosanct, and we shall continue our meetings and engagement with the various Pension Unions to ensure quality service delivery. It is our prayer that the President-Elect, will be as favourably disposed towards the pensioners of the Defined Benefit Scheme as the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari has been. We cannot afford to go back to the time when the DBS pensioners were owed months of pension arrears and their needs pushed to the back-burner.
May I also use this opportunity to continue to sensitise our pensioners against patronising pension fraudsters. No staff of PTAD will call or send any message to you requesting for payment or ask you to call a certain phone number before your arrears or gratuity will be paid. Once you get such messages, you should know that PTAD did not send them and will never do so. Kindly share this important information with your members so they do not fall victim to these fraudsters.
PTAD is grateful to President Muhammadu Buhari who since the inception of his administration has made payment of pensions an un-written first line charge. We also appreciate the support of our able Supervisory Minister, Dr. Zainab Shamsuna Ahmed, the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation and all our other major stakeholders who have made the modest successes achieved by PTAD possible.
Once again, I welcome you all and wish us a fruitful deliberation.
God bless our pensioners.
God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria
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