Most times pensioners in Nigeria wait for a very long time in queues before they get paid. The Pension Transition Arrangement Directorate (PTAD) has identified lack of accurate and verifiable database as major challenges in the smooth management of pension in Nigeria.
During a sensitization workshop on Pension management for pensioners in north-west zone held in Kaduna on Monday, the Director General the PTAD, Mrs Nellie Mayshakat, told participants that the absence of proper record of pensioners in Nigeria had contributed to why retirees often find it difficult to access their funds after retirement.
To address the problem, she said the directorate would soon embark on a nationwide verification exercise to ascertain the accurate number of pensioners and their liabilities across Nigeria. She also disclosed that the Federal Government is owing pensioners huge sum of arrears which could only be settled at the end of the verification exercise.
At the workshop were senior citizens who had served their father land meritoriously. They gathered to interact with officials from the Pension Directorate.
The main objective of the meeting was to provide an interactive platform for effective discussion and exchange of ideas on the role and mandate of the directorate and the plights of pensioners. Participants here are pensioners who are primary stakeholders in the entire value chain, the Nigerian Union of Pensioners, sector unions in parastatals and underwriters and brokers.
The expected result of the Verification Exercise will include the establishment of a comprehensive, authentic and credible database of pensioners. The exercise will ensure effective planning and management of pensions, elimination of ghost pensioners, elimination of duplication of payments, correction and eradication of anomalies such as over payments and short payments, Mrs Mayshak said.
Some pensioners interviewed, however, expressed sadness over their inability to access their pension after their retirement, calling on the new body to expedite action on the prompt payment of pension.
Over the years, pension administration in Nigeria had become an issue of grave national concern, with allegations of misappropriation of funds belonging to pensioners by the handlers taking the centre stage.
A the workshop, expectations were high that with the PTAD platform, all outstanding issues relating to management of pensioners would be addressed.
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