Speech Delivered by the Executive Secretary of PTAD, Dr. Chioma Ejikeme, at the South-South Stakeholders Engagement Forum, held at Calabar, Cross-River State on December 7, 2022, provides update on PTAD activities & future plans
South-South
Cross River, Akwa Ibom, Rivers, Edo, Delta & Bayelsa.
Protocols
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-South Zone of the country.
Let me start by expressing my appreciation to you all for honouring our invitation. It is my sincere belief that our interaction here will be of immense benefit to us all.
As you are aware, the Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate 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 I would have to say “so far so good”. Change, they say, is constant, and positive change is what we all clamour for.
Over the years, PTAD has consistently worked towards achieving positive and sustainable changes in DBS pension management. 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 controls and processes that have been put in place since the establishment of PTAD have contributed immensely to the change being witnessed in the management of the Defined Benefits Pension scheme as at today.
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 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 milestone achievements.
It is not yet a perfect situation, especially when we recognize that “excellence is a journey and not a destination”. However, it is a fact that, giant strides have been made, and will continue to be made.
Since our last Stakeholders Forum for the South-South region held in Uyo, PTAD has carried out a series of activities which include:
- Completion of the 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.
- Part-payment of the arrears owed NITEL/MTEL pensioners. Two weeks ago, we paid another 15 months arrears to 5,907 pensioners out of the outstanding sixty-three (63) months of the inherited unfunded pension liabilities. The remaining half of the NITEL/MTEL pensioners will get their 15 months arrears’ payment soon.
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 us, with the exception of NITEL/MTEL, 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 Department and the six (6) Geo-political zones. I wish to announce that PTAD is ready for the full rollout of the solution.
In line with our resolve to make the process as seamless as possible for our pensioners, PTAD has trained the Pension Desk Officers of the various institutions and organisations where our pensioners retired from, as well as Pension Union Executives from the six geo-political zones on the Solution. The training is to enable them assist pensioners who are unable to carry out the “I Am Alive” confirmation on their own.
The commitment of PTAD towards the welfare of our pensioners remain sacrosanct, and we shall continue our meetings and engagement with the various pension unions to ensure quality service delivery.
As we enter the campaign and election season, it is pertinent that pensioners should engage the contestants at the Federal and State levels, to find out their position or antecedents in pension management, and get a firm commitment from them regarding the welfare of pensioners.
The need to have a President who listens to the needs of pensioners cannot be overemphasized. 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, as it was done in the past.
We sincerely hope that the next administration, and who emerges as the President, will be as favourably disposed towards the pensioners of the Defined Benefit Scheme as this administration has been.
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 disseminate this important information to your members so they do not fall victim to these fraudsters.
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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