Economy
PTAD Pays N6.2 bn, Clears Arrears of 16,210 Pensioners — Exec. Sec
The Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD), on Tuesday, announced it had N6.2 billion, clearing the pension arrears of 16,210 pensioners, according to a statement by Mr Gbenga Ajayi, PTAD’s Head of Corporate Communications.Ajayi, who issued the statement in Abuja, on behalf of Dr Chioma Ejikeme, the Executive Secretary of PTAD, said that the directorate had initiated a project which reviewed, computed and recomputed to pay the money to the beneficiaries.
The statement added that the directorate had embarked on an expanded re-validation and re-computation exercise in a bid to clear all pensions arrears, resolve all complaints of short payments, outstanding gratuities for the Civil Service Pensioners and their Next of Kin (NoK). “ This is in fulfilment of the promise made by the Ejikeme at the directorate’s press conference in September 2020, where she declared a state of emergency on the payment of outstanding entitlements to pensioners and set-up an expanded project team to ramp up on the computation of benefits for all verified Civil Service Pensioners.” According to the Executive Secretary, the project was targeted at reducing the number of complaints received by the directorate on short payments, qualified pensioners not on payroll and other outstanding benefits to the pensioners and the NoK of deceased pensioners. “ During the exercise in September 2020 – March 2021 a total of 46,284 pensioners’ files were reviewed for end-to end quality assurance. “ A total sum of N6.2 billion naira has been paid as arrears of gratuity, monthly payments and one-off payments to 16,210 Pensioners/Nok that are qualified for the payment after the computation. “ Over 1,000 qualified pensioners not on payroll, post verification, have been put on the payroll and their arrears paid, “ Ejikeme said. She said that the key aspect of the project geared towards continuous resolution of complaints had ensured that pensioners with outstanding documents e.g., bank statements, BVN and other required documents were contacted to resolve their complaints effectively. Also, calls were put across to the affected pensioners, letters were also written requesting them to forward documents to the directorate for the resolution of their complaints, she added.Ejikeme assured that by the end of the second quarter of 2021, all issues relating to short payments, gratuity and other forms of arrears for civil service pensioners would be settled, and also assured that pensioners’ welfare and wellbeing remained of utmost priority to her. (NAN)
The Nigerian Exchange Ltd. (NGX) continued its bullish trend on Wednesday, gaining N183 billion.
Accordingly, the market capitalisation, which opened at N59.532 trillion, gained N184 billion or 0.31 per cent to close at N59.715 trillion.
The All-Share Index also added 0.31 per cent or 303 points, to settle at 98,509.
68, against 98,206. 97 recorded on Tuesday.Consequently, the Year-To-Date (YTD) return increased to 31.
74 per cent.Gains in Aradel Holdings, Zenith Bank, United Bank For Africa(UBA), Oando Plc, Nigerian Breweries among other advanced equities drove the market performance up.
Market breadth closed positive with 34 gainers and 17 losers.
On the gainers’ chart, Africa Prudential, Conoil and RT Briscoe led by 10 per cent each to close at N14.30, N352 and N2.42 per share, respectively.
Golden Guinea Breweries followed by 9.95 per cent to close at N7.18, while NEM Insurance rose by 9.74 per cent to close at N10.70 per share.
On the other hand, Julius Berger led the losers’ chart by 10 per cent to close at N155.25, Secure Electronic Technology Plc trailed by 9.52 per cent to close at 57k per share.
Multiverse lost 7.63 per cent to close at N5.45, Haldane McCall dropped 6.07 per cent to close at N4.95 and Honeywell Flour shed 5.62 per cent to close at N4.70 per share.
Analysis of the market activities showed trade turnover settled lower relative to the previous session, with the value of transactions down by 49.44 per cent.
A total of 320.10 million shares valued at N6.48 billion were exchanged in 7,943 deals, compared with 939.41 million shares valued at N12.81billion traded in 9,098 deals posted in the previous session.
Meanwhile, ETranzact led the activity chart in volume with 70.27 million shares, while Aradel led in value of deals worth N1.22 billion.(NAN)
The central parity rate of the Chinese currency renminbi, or the Yuan, weakened 22 pips to 7.1870 against the dollar on Monday.This is according to the China Foreign Exchange Trade System.In China’s spot foreign exchange market, the Yuan is allowed to rise or fall by two per cent from the central parity rate each trading day.
The central parity rate of the Yuan against the dollar is based on a weighted average of prices offered by market makers before the opening of the interbank market each business day. (Xinhua/NAN)
Arewa Youths Initiative for Energy Reforms (AYIFER), has urged Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL) to do everything possible to bring Kaduna Refinery back into operation.
National Coordinator of the group, Mr Bashir Al’Amin, stated this in a statement issued on Friday in Abuja.
Al’Amin specifically called on the Chief Executive Officer of NNPCL, Mallam Mele Kyari, to do all within his powers to rejuvenate the refinery and bring it up to global standard.
He said that having delivered the Port Harcourt refinery, coupled with the establishment of Dangote Refinery in Lagos, attention should be shifted to Kaduna refinery for easy spread of petroleum products.
“We are calling on Malam Mele Kyari to expedite action on Kaduna refinery so we can be at par with other regions in the country.
“We equally beg the NNPCL to do professional work in rehabilitating the old refinery and deliver a standard and functional petrochemical refinery and not a blending plant.
“Kyari should resist any temptation that could make him do something that can jeopardise his good image,” he said.
Al’Amin said that since the extinction of groundnut pyramid and textiles in Kano State as well as PAN in Kaduna State and with the Kaduna refinery getting moribund, a lot of youths had lost their jobs.
According to him, all their hopes in the north are tied to the legacy refinery, expressing the hope that God would use Kyari to deliver it well and on time.
He said that the group was solidly behind NNPCL in prayer and would be ready to celebrate the company if its expectations were met. (NAN)
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