PTAD Has Addressed Challenges of Pensioners, Says Ejikeme

John Shiklam in Kaduna

The Executive Secretary of Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD), Dr. Chioma Ejikeme, has said the directorate has addressed the challenges facing pensioners since its establishment about 10 years ago.

Speaking at a forum with pensioners and stakeholders in the North-West zone yesterday, in Kaduna, Ejikeme said, “PTAD’s determination to change the narrative as far as pension administration under the Defined Benefits Scheme (DBS) in Nigeria is concerned is irrevocable.”

She said the directorate has consistently been working hard to achieve positive and sustainable change in the DBS pension management.

The PTAD boss noted that in the past, the DBS was fraught with allegations of fraud, corruption and inefficiencies prior to the establishment of the directorate.

She said, since the establishment of the PTAD, the narrative has changed for the better.

Ejikeme said, “the processes and controls that have been put in place by PTAD has “contributed immensely to the change being witnessed today in the management of the Defined Benefit Pension scheme.”

Ejikeme said, “The hard work of PTAD over the years is now paying off despite the enormous challenges it inherited on inception.

“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 is committed to continuing to make giant strides in the Defined Benefit Scheme Administration”, she said.

The PTAD boss further said, “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.”

She said in 2021, the directorate launched the “I AM Alive” confirmation solution in order to identify pensioners still alive.

She said the pilot phase was successfully completed when the application was tested on 50, 000 randomly-selected pensioners from the four Operational Department and the six geo-political zones.

According to her, following the success of the pilot phase, the directorate, on April 14, 2023, fully rolled out the solution for the use of pensioners.

Ejikeme explained that in order to ensure an efficient and effective delivery, and prevent a heavy flow of traffic on the website, “we have staggered the availability of the Confirmation Solution according to departments.

She said Police Pensioners commenced on April 14 to October 13, 2023, while pensioners of the Nigerian Customs, Immigration and Prisons Pensioners will commence on June 1 to December 31, 2023.

Similarly, Civil Service Pensioners would start their own on July 1 to January 31, 2024, while pensioners from Parastatals would commence on August 1 to February 28, 2024.

She called on pensioners to take note of the scheduled dates as it concerns their respective departments so as to avoid heavy traffic on the website.

She said, the commitment of PTAD to the welfare of pensioners remains sacrosanct and shall continue meeting and engaging with the various pension unions to ensure quality service delivery.

In a presentation at the meeting, the Director, Pensioner Support Services Department, Nneka Obiamalu, said PTAD said, “inherited very complex pension schemes that were mismanaged and did not have reliable data or information.”