Economy
Pension: 187 Agencies Get N3.3bn Increment Arrears
By Mathew Dadiya, Abuja with Agency Reports
The Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD) has paid the sum of N3.366 billion to pensioners of 187 agencies.
According to PTAD, the payment covers six months of the outstanding arrears of the 33% pension increment for pensioners across five sectors: Education, Health, Other Public Sector Research Institute (OPSRI), Power, and Universities.
The directorate said that it has now offset 30 months arrears for pensioners in agencies across 5 sectors under Parastatals Pension Department (PaPD).
Daily Asset recalls that between June 2016 and December 2018, PTAD paid 24 months arrears to pensioners in these agencies.
At the time of its takeover of payment of Parastatals pension in 2015, the Directorate had inherited outstanding 33% pension increment liabilities from the various agencies.
PTAD further has assured that all arrears would be paid in due course.
This payment according to the agency, was in fulfilment of President Muhammadu Buhari’s promise to clear outstanding pension arrears for pensioners under the Defined Benefit Scheme.
Meanwhile, some insurance and pension experts have called on the Federal Government to urgently intervene in the raging issue of poor pension benefits being paid to some retirees of the Nigeria Police.
The experts made the call-in separate interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on Sunday against the backdrop of recent demonstrations across the country by some police retirees.
The retirees, who are under the contributory pension scheme being managed by NPF Pensions Limited, alleged that they were shortchanged as they were paid as low as N2 million lump sum on retirement.
Oku Nana, the Chairman of Retired Police Officers Association (Under the Contributory Pension Scheme) in Lagos, said that some retired middle cadre officers in the police were paid as low as N3.5 million lump sum instead of N10 million paid to their mates in other agencies.
He said this was in gross violation of the provisions of the Pension Act of 2004.
The experts told NAN that the problem might be due to low savings in the officers’ Retirement Savings Accounts (RSA).
They alleged that their employer (The Nigeria Police) might not have made the mandatory counterpart contributions to their RSAs as required by law.
Mr Mufutau Oyegunle, an insurance and pension analyst in Lagos, said that the issue of unfounded account that the police retirees faced was not uncommon.
“It is not that the pension monies were not deducted from the retirees, but just that the monies were not remitted.
“So, zero account means zero returns on investment which affects gratuity,” he said.
Oyegunle said this could be one of the numerous challenges which the NPFPL inherited and was trying to correct.
He suggested a 300 per cent increase across board in the pension entitlements (lump sum and monthly pension) of the affected officers to assuage them.
“It is unjust for an officer who served meritoriously for 35 years to be paid N2 million gratuity upon retirement,” he said.
Dr Edgar Sunday, the Head of Service in Adamawa State, called for proper documentation of pension remittances.
“For example, how much was remitted, the year the money was remitted, the years the remittances covered and beneficiaries.
“We should know that fears of retirement is what is pushing some civil servants that are still in service into corruption,” he said.
Sunday advised President Mohammed Buhari to ensure that pension administrators at the national, state and local government levels manage pension funds in a manner that workers would look forward to retirement without apprehension.
“President Buhari must ensure that pension money diverted are recovered and forwarded to those retirees languishing,” he said.
Mr Leye Awoniyi, an insurance expert in Lagos, advised the Federal Government to devise a way of appropriately compensating the affected police retirees, saying that a labourer deserved his or her wage.
“It is not the fault of these retired police officers, but the system that has allowed this to happen. That a man worked for 35 years and he is not being paid his dues is unfair. The Federal Government must intervene and pay these officers appropriately,” he said.
Mr Otunba Arasi, the Acting Chairman of Federal Civil Service Pensioners in Lagos State, said “we don’t know who is fooling who.’’
“When we go to PTAD, they will tell us the Federal Government has not released money, while the Federal Government said they have released the money.
“We appeal to well mean Nigerians that whoever has President Buhari’s number to please give us,” he said.
Mr. Femi Olaosebikan, a serving police officer in Lagos, expressed fears that this situation would not affect him.
“Is it a crime to be a policeman in Nigeria. How can government stop corruption among us when we are not sure of our pension benefits?”
By David Torough, Abuja
The Nigerian Economic Society (NES) has decried Nigeria’s socioeconomic dilemmas, including; low personal incomes, dysfunctional education, healthcare systems, unemployment, rising inflation, poverty, amidst other critical issues.
This was part of the communique at the end of the association’s 65th annual conference held recently in Abuja with the theme: Socioeconomic Development in Nigeria: Imperatives, Implications, and Impacts.
It emphasised that the factors greatly contribute to insecurity, food scarcity, energy poverty, widening social inequality as macroeconomic instability and called on relevant stakeholders to urgently address the challenges.
President Bola Tinubu who was represented by the Vice President, Kashim Shettima through
Dr. Tope Fasua, underscored the
pivotal role of economists in shaping national development.
Tinubu reiterated the importance of their role to make the citizens feel integral and empowered, knowing that their contributions were crucial to the country’s development.
He urged them to approach the economy optimistically, stressing that their work was crucial, and that improvement was
always possible.
In his remarks, Minister of Budget and National Planning, Atiku Bagudu underscored the importance of socioeconomic resilience amidst global economic challenges.
He acknowledged the relevance of the conference theme, stating its timeliness in addressing Nigeria’s development needs.
On his part, Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Olawale Edun who delivered the keynote address on “Leveraging Economic Reforms to Leapfrog Nigeria’s Socioeconomic Development,” underscored the potential benefits of these reforms and stressed the need to better utilise Nigeria’s human and natural resources to spur socio-economic development.
He predicted that while structural reforms might cause short-term economic shocks, they would stabilise the economy in the long run, bringing hope for a brighter future.
In his presentation, the NES President, Professor Adeola Adenikinju who presented “Nigeria’s Socioeconomic Challenges: Lessons from the Structural Adjustment Programmes,” recommended:
Instituting an economic governance structure for the country, designating
some Ministries as economic ministries that qualified economists and allied professionals
must staff, adopting macroeconomic models to analyse the impacts of policies and assess
alternative scenarios.
Adenikinju also recommended; implementing export-led growth strategies by promoting value-
added exports and incentives for export-oriented industries and infrastructure, prioritising agro-allied industries to boost socioeconomic outcomes, implementing targeted subsidies or social safety nets to cushion vulnerable populations against the immediate impacts of reforms, amongst others.
The 65th NES Conference provided significant insights into Nigeria’s socioeconomic
development challenges and proposed actionable recommendations.
Participants emphasised the need for visionary leadership, policy synergy, and a commitment to long-term economic transformation to ensure sustainable development for Nigeria.
By Tony Obiechina, Abuja
The Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC) says it will henceforth issue Outline Business Case (OBC) Certificate of Compliance and the Full Business Case (FBC) Certificate of Compliance within seven days.This follows the charge by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to the Director General of the Commission, Dr Jobson Oseodion Ewalefoh “to accelerate investment in National Infrastructure through innovative mobilization of private-sector funding”.
President Tinubu also charged him to work assiduously to boost infrastructure development in Nigeria as part of the renewed hope agenda of the current administration.In view of the above, Dr Ewalefoh-led management team of the ICRC has streamlined the approval processes of the commission to issue its certificates of compliance within seven days. This will accelerate the turnaround time for approvals by the Commission.“In line with the charge of His Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, and following his Renewed Hope Agenda, we have streamlined and updated our approval processes to issue either of the Outline Business Case Certificate of Compliance (OBC) and the Full Business Case Certificate of Compliance (FBC) to Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) that meet the requirements within seven days.“This is part of efforts by the current administration to accelerate infrastructure development, bridge the infrastructure gaps and stimulate the economy through investment of private sector funds in Public Private Partnership endeavours.“By streamlining our processes, the Commission is in no way foregoing any of its stringent approval steps or key requirements, therefore, only business cases that are viable, bankable, offer value for money and meet all other requirements will be approved.“The ICRC cannot do it alone, therefore I implore all chief executives of MDAs to match our momentum and align with this charge of Mr. President to accelerate Infrastructure development and ensure that PPP projects are not stalled at any point but delivered within record time.“The Commission is ready to partner and collaborate with all MDAs to actualize this,” he said.In a statement by Ifeanyi NwokoActing Head, Media and Publicity on Monday the ICRC DG in August rolled out a six-point policy direction which among others, focused on accelerating PPP processes, boosting inter-agency collaboration and ensuring innovative financing.The ICRC was established to regulate Public Private Partnership (PPP) endeavours of the Federal government aimed at addressing Nigeria’s physical infrastructure deficit which hampers economic development.
By Tony Obiechina, Abuja
The federal government in the second quarter of 2024 generated a total of N1.56 trillion from Value Added Tax. This is a 9.11 percent increase from the N1.43 trillion in Q1 2024.
According to the National Bureau of Statistics report, local payments recorded were N792.
58 billion, foreign VAT payments were N395. 74 billion, while import VAT contributed N372. 95 billion in Q2 2024.“On a quarter-on-quarter basis, human health and social work activities recorded the highest growth rate with 98.44%, followed by agriculture, forestry and fishing with 70.26%, and water supply, sewerage, waste management and remediation activities with 59.
75%,” NBS reported.“On the other hand, activities of households as employers, undifferentiated goods and services producing activities of households for own use had the lowest growth rate with 46.84%, followed by Real estate activities with 42.59%.
“In terms of sectoral contributions, the top three largest shares in Q2 2024 were
manufacturing with 11.78%; information and communication with 9.02%; and Mining and quarrying with 8.79%.
“Nevertheless, activities of households as employers, undifferentiated goods- and services-producing activities of households for own use recorded the least share with 0.00%, followed by activities of extraterritorial organisations and bodies with 0.01%; and Water supply, sewerage, waste management and remediation activities with and real estate services 0.04% each.
“However, on a year-on-year basis, VAT collections in Q2 2024 increased by 99.82% from Q2 2023.”
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