The Nigerian government, through the Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD) has repatriated £26.5 million(N13.96bn)in colonial pension funds from the United Kingdom.
The money was recovered from Crown Agents Investment Managers Limited, which was left over from the money used to pay British colonial officials who served in Nigeria.
The Punch reports that the PTAD Executive Secretary, Dr Chioma Ejikeme, announced on Thursday, 18 November at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.
At the announcement of recovered funds, Ejikeme also stated that the directorate recovered N17.85 billion from the Board of Trustees and Underwriters of Treasury Funded Federal Parastatals as legacy pension assets.
The PTAD boss said the monies were used to defray the inherited arrears of defunct agencies and to pay off inherited outstanding pension arrears.
She said the directorate had paid over N610 billion from January 2015 to December 2021 in monthly pensions, achieving 90% of its mandate.
Her words:
“Through the unwavering support of President Muhammadu Buhari, who has been adjudged by pensioners as the most pensioner-friendly president in Nigeria, and administration which has made pension an unwritten first-line charge; the able supervision of the Honorable Minister for Finance, Budget and National Planning and our regulator, PenCom, PTAD’s management team has been able to achieve the following:
“Full implementation of the TSA which has ensured the sanctity of pension funds and enshrined transparency in pension payments.
“Regular monthly payments of pension without fail since inception as and when due.
“Payments of long-outstanding arrears to pensioners across all the pension departments, most significantly the huge arrears inherited from the defunct/privatized agencies, and Regular engagements with pensioners and other stakeholders across all the six geo-political zones, to update pensioners on activities of the Directorate.
The PTAD executive secretary also put the number of ex-Biafran police officers on its pension payroll at 303, the Guardian reports.
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