Pensioners to get paid a week after retirement – PENCOM

The Executive Chairman of the National Pension Commission (PENCOM), Aisha Dahiru Umar, Thursday said, there will be no delayed payment of pension to retirees of Federal government agencies anymore.

Reacting to inquiries on delayed payment of pension and other challenges being faced by retirees, she said, arrangements have been concluded for retired officers to be paid a week after retirement.

Umar was responding to the Senate Committee on Finance’s inquiries in the ongoing meeting on the 2023 – 2025 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP) sitting in Abuja.

The PENCOM boss also declared that the sum of N14.5 trillion pension fund in the vault of the Commission was not idle as being portrayed in some quarters, disclosing that the amount was invested.

The PENCOM boss said the backlog of accrued rights component of pension payments to Pensioners causing delay in payment over the years, is almost cleared by the Federal Government.

She revealed that the FG has been paying N49 billion consistently every month as pension with the intention of clearing the backlog of pension arrears.

She said: “Late payment of pension to pensioners will be a thing of the past very soon as required steps in that direction have been taken by the federal government whose retirees are affected.”

She, however, advised pensioners to carry out required documentation a year to their retirement in fast tracking the whole process.

The Committee Chairman, Senator Solomon Adeola Olamilekan, however, said the yearly repeated N102 million overhead subvention given the agency by the federal government will be removed aside the N26 billion yearly inserted into the Commission budget without cash backing.