According to figures from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the Federal Government’s expenditure on pensions and gratuity fell slightly by N3.48bn in 2021.
The CBN revealed in its data on ‘Federal Government recurrent expenditure’ that the amount spent fell from N359.6bn in 2020 to N356.12bn in the 2021 financial year.
Despite yearly allocations, the federal retirees have continued to complain of payment challenges.
Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD), in charge of the Defined Benefits Scheme under the Federal Government, had earlier said it inherited pension liabilities totaling N129.48bn.
During a capacity workshop where a presentation titled ‘Parastatals Pension Department’ was delivered, it said PTAD inherited an estimated amount of N32.77bn, N28.96bn, and N67.75bn owed pensioners of the Treasury Funded Parastatal, Ex-PHCN, and defunct agencies respectively. However, the directorate said it had cleared almost all the pension liabilities and ensured that all outstanding arrears would be taken care of.
Recently, some retirees under the Federal Civil Service Pensions, Lagos State branch, protested non-payment of pensions, among other challenges.
In a protest letter jointly signed by the Chairman, FCSP, Otunba Lawal, and State Secretary, Abiodun Michael, the retirees said, “Since September 2017 verification exercise, countless pensioners have yet to be on PTAD payroll till present.” They complained that their monthly pensioners were not paid comfortably.
PTAD, reacting, said verified and qualified pensioners were on its payroll and that any person in doubt should come with their documents to confirm otherwise.
The Executive Secretary of PTAD, Dr. Chioma Ejikeme, held a meeting with the Nigeria Union of Pensioners and the Federal Civil Service Pensioners Branch executive members.
The directorate said in a statement, “PTAD boss informed the union executives that following the expanded computation project embarked on by the directorate in 2020, and going through the career documents submitted by pensioners during verification, it was discovered that 14,836 pensioners in the Civil Service Pension Department were being overpaid.
“At the end of the meeting, both parties agreed that the affected pensioners will be contacted and informed of the directorate’s plan to properly place them on the right monthly pension from the month of July 2022, while the modalities to recover the overpayment will be worked out in due course.”
