1,217 Retirees Receive N8bn In 6 Years – FCT Pension Board
BY EDMOND ODOK – The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Area Council Staff Pension Board says over eight billion Naira has been disbursed as accrued benefits to 1,217 retirees over the six years period from 2016 to date.
Similarly, the Board, which is responsible for the FCT Area Councils Staff and Local Education Authority (LEA) teachers’ pension administration, disclosed that the total sum of 896 million Naira was paid in lieu of death benefits to deceased families during the period under review.
The Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Board, Dr Nanzing Nden, told newsmen in Abuja on Wednesday that for this year alone, the Board has already disbursed about 754 million Naira as pension benefits to 194 retirees, adding that 1.8 billion Naira was also paid as monthly pension to 1,000,044 (one million and forty-four) retirees under the old scheme.
Dr Nden also urged those who retired between 2005 and 2015 to come forward and claim their benefits, saying; “We still have 132 persons who retired between 2005 and 2015 but have not applied for their pension.
“We do not have their complete records. We have their files, but we don’t have their Pension Fund Administrators’ certificates to enable us to process their payment.”
Nden said with the support of the Minister and the Permanent Secretary, the Board was able to implement the pension management system, including the website, all the media sites, a functional workflow system, and Information Technology (IT) Centre that keeps and updates all its records.
According to him; “Over the five or six years we have been here, we have been able to do a few things; the implementation of the system, where we gave a robust system of implementation or computation of accrual rights benefits to all our staff.
“Also, we have document management that ensures all our files are digitalised, and in the course of our effort in this direction, the FCT Administration itself has come to copy what we are doing here.
“Also, we have been able to maintain a group life assurance policy to ensure that all those who died during this period were paid their insurance benefit. We also have paid 896 million Naira as the death benefit of those who died in the same period, in lieu of their death.
“Every year, we have been able to implement a pension operational management system retreat, where we bring all management and stakeholders to brainstorm on our reports and critique us and advise us on the way forward.
“Through this, we have been able to launch our Servicom charter as the first FCT agency to do so, and no other agency has been able to do. So we are the only agency in the FCT that has a charter. Also, we have been able to launch our anti-corruption transparency guide, and we are the only agency in the FCT to do such, so this year, we intend to launch our operation manual, which will also be the first for the FCT.
“This year, we were nominated as the finalist at the World Pension Summit, which was held in the Netherlands, due to the implementation of efficient strategies for innovations in pensions.”
On the Board’s source of funding, the Chief Executive Officer said; “We have our funding from essentially from the federal government, the FCT Administration, and our major stakeholders, the Area Councils.
“The Pension fund is locked up with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), it is not part of the budgetary system. It is a fund that is put together by the FCT Administration, Area Councils, and Federal Government.”
He further explained that; “While the Area Councils contribute 15 percent, FCT Administration contributes 2.5 percent, and the Federal Government contributes five (5) percent to the retirement bond savings account with the CBN”.
