The National Pension Commission (PENCOM) executive chairman Aisha Dahiru Umar declared on Thursday that pension payments to retirees of federal government organizations will no longer be delayed.
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She said that plans had been made for retired officers to get their payouts one week after retirement in response to inquiries about the delayed payment of pensions and other challenges faced by retirees.
Umar was replying to questions from the Senate Committee on Finance during a hearing in Abuja about the Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP) and Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) for 2023–2025.
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The PENCOM boss also revealed that the N14.5 trillion pension cash in the Commission’s vault was invested rather than sitting dormant as had been claimed in some circles.
The head of PENCOM claimed that the Federal Government has virtually finished clearing the backlog of accrued rights payments to pensioners that have caused delays in payment throughout the years.
She disclosed that the FG has been continuously paying N49 billion in pension payments each month with the goal of reducing the backlog of pension arrears.
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The federal government, whose retirees are impacted, has taken the necessary steps in that regard, so late pension payments to pensioners will soon be a thing of the past.
To expedite the process, she suggested that pensioners complete the necessary paperwork a year prior to retiring.
Senator Solomon Adeola Olamilekan, the chairman of the committee, however, said that aside from the N26 billion annually placed into the Commission budget without monetary backing, the annual repeating N102 million overhead subvention paid to the agency by the federal government would be abolished.