PTAD Clears Pension Arrears Price N1.18bn
The Pension Transitional Association Directorate (PTSD) has cleared a complete of N1.18bn in pension arrears over the previous 5 years, from 2020 to 2024, in line with information obtained from BudgIT’s accountability platform, GovSpend, on Sunday.
These funds benefitted 1000’s of retired federal staff and are a part of the federal government’s ongoing efforts to deal with long-standing pension liabilities affecting varied sectors of the general public service.
The funds diverse yearly, with the best quantity cleared in 2023. That yr, PTAD paid N591.5m in pension arrears, a rise from the N152.8m cleared in 2020.
In 2021, a complete of N59.08m was cleared, adopted by N39.26m in 2022. In 2024, PTAD disbursed N343m, making certain a considerable portion of the arrears amassed over a number of years was paid to pensioners.
The arrears lined varied sectors, together with college employees, retired civil servants, and former workers of defunct parastatals such because the Nigeria Nationwide Transport Line and Nationwide Telecommunications.
A number of the funds additionally included these made to retired everlasting secretaries, former accountants common, and varied federal civil servants.
For instance, between July and October 2023, PTAD paid over N92m in arrears to retired accountants common and everlasting secretaries of the federation.
Different beneficiaries included retired employees from universities, ministries, and federal companies, with funds starting from a number of million naira to bigger sums, comparable to N17.3m in April 2024 for arrears owed to NITEL staff.
Regardless of the progress, pensioners have raised issues concerning the timeliness and completeness of the funds, noting that not all retirees have been lined and a few are nonetheless ready for his or her dues to be settled.
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Throughout a protest organized by pensioners in November 2024, the Nationwide Chairman of the Nigeria Union of Pensioners Contributory Pension Scheme Sector, Sylva Nuatawu, referred to as for a consequential adjustment in pensions arising from the implementation of the Nationwide Minimal Wage (Modification) Act, 2024.
Nuatawu said that the union had written a number of letters to the Ministry of Finance with no response, prompting members to protest on the ministry’s entrance gate.
He urged the federal authorities to pay N32,000 pension increment to pensioners, declaring that staff who retired from the Contributory Pension Scheme over 20 months in the past (from March 2023 thus far) had but to obtain their retirement advantages.
“CPS retirees had been excluded from the three pension increments paid or authorised by the current administration to retired public servants,” Nuatawu mentioned.
“Moreover, the discharge of funds for accrued rights to retired staff has amassed over 20 months. Nevertheless, three months’ value of accrued rights had been launched after a peaceable rally by the union on the Workplace of the Accountant-Common of the Federation on October 23,” he added.
He famous that “we nonetheless have a backlog of 18 months but to be launched, and this presents a trigger for concern for us as retired staff below the CPS.”
In January, the Nationwide Pension Fee revealed that the Federal Authorities had launched a further N22bn by the Workplace of the Accountant-Common of the Federation for the accrued pension rights of retirees in Ministries, Departments, and Businesses below the Contributory Pension Scheme.
In a press release launched on its Instagram web page, PenCom defined that the disbursement was for retirees who had retired between October 2023 and January 2024.
“These funds had been disbursed into the Retirement Advantages Bond Redemption Fund Account, domiciled on the Central Financial institution of Nigeria, and are supposed to settle accrued pension rights for verified retirees of Treasury-funded MDAs,” the pension regulator mentioned.
PenCom additionally famous that the accrued rights of some deceased workers had been lined, with funds already credited to the retirement financial savings accounts of their beneficiaries by pension fund directors.
