By Jide Adelokiki, Abuja
The National Pension Commission (PenCom) said a total pension of ₦22 billion has been released from the 2024 appropriation, bringing the total disbursed so far to ₦66 billion. This funding, part of the government’s effort to settle accrued pension rights, was transferred to the Retirement Benefits Bond Redemption Fund (RBBRF) Account at the Central Bank of Nigeria.
The disbursed amount covers retirees from Federal Government Treasury-funded Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs), including those verified for the period between October 2023 and January 2024, and also some deceased employees. The funds have been credited to the affected retirees’ Retirement Savings Accounts (RSAs) through their respective Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs).
PenCom has urged retirees to contact their PFAs to complete the necessary paperwork to ensure timely access to their retirement benefits.
The Commission remains committed to resolving any outstanding pension liabilities in collaboration with relevant authorities.
While the commission also said concerted efforts have been made by critical stakeholders to ensure that persistent delays in funding of pension-accrued right of Federal Government retire rights are brought to an end. Omolola Oloworaran, acting director general, PenCom gave the assurance during her keynote address at a workshop on Online Enrolment Application for Pension Desk Officers (PDOs) of Treasury-funded Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDA) of the Federal Government held Monday in Lagos.
Oloworaran said, although the current delay in release of funds by the Federal Government for the payment of retirees’ accrued rights negates the cardinal objective of the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) of payment of retirement benefits as and when due, I would like to assure you that this situation will soon be resolved, she said.
“It is also heart-warming to report to you that concerted efforts by the critical stakeholders have reached advanced stage, to not only clear all outstanding pension liabilities of the Federal Government under CPS, but to also put in place lasting solutions that will address the problems of inadequate funding and delay in fund releases for the payment of accrued rights”.
On the workshop, she said the Commission has since 2021 automated the Retiree enrolment process with the deployment of the Online Enrolment Application, which has the capabilities to register, verify, and enrol prospective retirees of Treasury-funded MDAs.
The Application she said has four modules namely Retiree Module, MDA Module, PFA Module and PenCom Module. As indicated, the application was designed with the MDA Module that enables the Pension Desk Officers (PDOs) to upload information of retirees/prospective retirees.
According to her, the objective of this workshop is to train the PDOs with the requisite knowledge on the relevant Modules of the Enrolment Application.
“Specifically, the workshop will focus on addressing the gaps observed in the previous exercises and enlighten PDOs on the modalities for the upcoming enrolment exercise for 2025 prospective retirees.”
In line with its statutory mandate, PenCom conducts annual pre-retirement verification and enrolment exercises for employees of Federal Government Treasury-funded MDAs who are scheduled to retire within the next fiscal year.
The objective of the exercise is to obtain accurate information on prospective retirees that would enable PenCom to determine their Accrued Pension Rights for budgetary provision by the Federal Government.
She assured that the Commission would continue to collaborate and work closely with the PDOs towards a successful 2024 Online Enrolment Exercise, scheduled to commence on 7th October 2024 and subsequent periods.
