… to commence verification for South Q1, 2017
Pension Transition Arrangement Directorate (PTAD) has announced a huge milestone in the North East zone of the country following the outcome of the verification exercise of civil service pensioners it carried out in four states of the region.
In the verification exercise, which covered Taraba, Adamawa, Bauchi and Gombe, the Directorate captured the biometrics of 4,370 pensioners, representing about 75 percent of the projected number of pensioners in those four states.
This was contained in the interim report from the zone, according to a statement issued Sunday by the public affairs department, PTAD.
The team, headed by the executive secretary of the Directorate, Sharon Ikeazor, travelled through the four states within a week to carry out the exercise.
During the exercise, those who did not have Bank Verification Numbers (BVN) were given on-the-spot assistance to the banks to obtain their BVN in line with the transparency initiative of the Executive Secretary, who has showed commitment to weed out ghost pensioners from the books and records of the Agency. The Directorate also visited the hospitals to capture those who were indisposed.
In a similar exercise carried out earlier to check the books, about 9,000 pensioners who did not have their BVN details were weeded out of the records of the Agency across board.
“We are not only determined to clean up the books in line with the zero-tolerance initiative of the President, we are poised to remove the negative perception which the Directorate has suffered before this new administration.
“We will continue to insist that the right things are done in a manner that will enhance the operations of the Directorate to meet its core mandate to pensioners,” Ikeazor said.
The Directorate is also finalizing arrangements to carry out the verification exercise of Borno and Yobe states, which were earlier delayed.
The Directorate will also be carrying out the verification exercise for the South-South, South-East and South-West states in the first quarter of next year in a bid to have comprehensive database of pensioners across the country.
Addressing some of the Pensioners in the North-East zone, Ikeazor noted that the Agency’s “intention is primarily to ensure that no pensioner is left out in the exercise.
“We try as much as possible to go the extra mile in ensuring that every eligible pensioner is captured in our database. That is the only way to ensure equity and all-inclusiveness,” she stated.
According to her, “pension right is human right. It is not a favour for the average pensioner but a right which is guaranteed in the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria”
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