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From Uche Usim, Abuja
Retirees of NICON Insurance and Delta Steel Company are currently jubilating as the Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD) said it has cleared their unfunded pension liabilities with N7.053 billion.
The Executive Secretary of PTAD, Dr. Chioma Ejikeme, who made the disclosure in Abuja at a media briefing, noted that only pensioners of defunct Nigeria Telecommunications Limited (NITEL) and its mobile subsidiary, MTEL were yet to be settled.
She said: “The complete liquidation of the outstanding 56 months of inherited pension liabilities for NICON Insurance (a total of 100 months were inherited) and the balance of 49 months owed ex-workers of Delta Steel Company (a total of 96 months were inherited) totaling N7,053,150,468.14)”.
She added that the aggregate number of pensioners involved from both NICON Insurance and the Delta Steel Company was 4,691
Ejikeme said the Directorate, in February 2017, received directives from the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning to take over the management of pensions and severance benefit liabilities of ex-workers of some Defunct/Privatized agencies, including Delta Steel Company, NICON Insurance PLC, Savannah Sugar Company, NITEL/MTEL, Aluminum Smelter Company, Nigeria Aviation Handling Company (NAHCO), among others.
“This exercise resulted in the disengagement of a considerable number of Public Sector employees. In February 2017 when PTAD was given the directive to on-board pensioners from these agencies, they were inherited with unpaid monthly pension and with pension arrears ranging from 84 to 219 months while some of the agencies entitled to one-off payments had not been paid,” she further explained.
She added that as part of reforms undertaken by the PTAD, the Directorate has concluded plans for the full roll-out of the “I Am Alive” confirmation solution, which is the way forward in terms of pensioners’ aliveness validation under the Defined Benefit Scheme (DBS).
