The Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate has paid over N610 billion from January 2015 to December 2021 in pensions.

Executive Secretary of the directorate, Dr. Chioma Ejikeme, disclosed this while appearing on the ministerial media briefing organised by the presidential communications team at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, on Thursday.

The executive secretary said that since the inception of PTAD, it had maintained regular monthly payments of pension duly without fail, adding that “from January 2015 to December 2021, PTAD has paid N610 billion in monthly pensions.”

She said the directorate had paid outstanding arrears to pensioners across all the pension departments, most significantly the huge arrears inherited from the defunct privatised agencies.

Dr. Ejikeme said after certification,  PTAD inherited 268,897 pensioners on payrolls of the old Pension Office at inception, noting that it had created a centralised database complete with pensioners personal information, biometrics and career documents.

She added that 226,328 pensioners were on the payroll after verification as at October 2022.

According to her, 242,894 pensioners were verified between 2015 and 2019 and 49,409 people were removed from the payroll between 2015 and 2022, while 40,918 were reinstated to payroll between 2015 and 2022.

She said among the defunct privatised agencies whose pensioners had been paid were NAHCO, which had been liquidated and had 661 persons paid in a one-off-payment. ALSCON also liquidated with 1031 paid, she noted.

Others are: Savanna Bank, 1,596 pensioners in a one-off-payment and liquidated; Nigeria National Shipping Line with 552 pensioners with inherited arrears 92 months but has been liquidated; Delta Steel with 3,657 pensioners and 96 months inherited arrears.