By Aliyu Askira Kano
Th e federal government has released the sum of N54 billion for the settlement of inherited and current liabilities to retirees on the platform of the contributory pension scheme. Addressing the media at the weekend in Kano, Presidential Spokesman, Alhaji Garba Shehu disclosed this, and added that under the Buhari administration which has change as its slogan, no Nigerian after serving the country diligently will be denied his pension and other benefi ts. Alhaji Shehu who was addressing the press as part of programmes to mark President Muhammadu Buhari second year in offi ce revealed that President Muhammadu Buhari had also directed that regular monthly remittances be made into the retirement benefi ts bond redemption fund (RBBRF) with the Central Bank of Nigeria to ensure the continuity of timely payments of benefi ts to retirees.
In addition, pension assets has increased from N4.96 Trillion in June, 2015 to N6.42 Trillion as at March 2017 indicating a growth of 29% he said, the Buhari administration will continue to also ensure the strengthening and accountability of PTAD. Shehu said the federal government had brought to an end the series of frauds and scandals around the issues of pensions in Nigeria, adding that this feet was achieved by strengthening the pension transitional arrangement directorate which had introduced a number of innovative measures over the past two years. Similarly, the Bank Verifi cation Number (BVN) policy had also been implemented in the pension scheme with over 103,000 Civil Service pensioners verifi ed, records have also been digitalize for secure archiving with thousand of thousands of old, physical pension folder converted to e-fi les
