Nigerian govt begins pre-retirement verification for workers

The Federal Government on Monday commenced the pre-retirement process, which includes verification and enrollment of its workers under the Contributory Pension Scheme.

The acting Director-General, National Pension Commission (PenCom), Mrs Aisha Dahir-Umar, said the pre-retirement workshop was taking place simultaneously in 15 locations across the country.
She explained that the objective of the workshop was to assist prospective retirees achieve easy transition to retirement life, come 2019.

Dahir-Umar said the main verification and enrollment of prospective 2019 retirees would take place nationwide from June 23 to August 17.
“One of the salient objectives of the Pension Reform Act (PRA 2014) is to make pension administration transparent and seamless.
“Accordingly, the Commission has established uniform set of rules, regulations and standards for all aspects of pension administration, including payment of retirement benefits to retirees,” she said.

Dahir-Umar urged prospective retirees to express their fears so that the commission would do everything it could to address their challenges and make retirement life more comfortable for future retirees.
The Director, Corporate Communications, PENCOM, Mr Peter Aghahowa, blamed the delay in the payment of retirees on under-appropriation by the Federal Government.
“The outstanding amount for accrued rights has been communicated to government and in previous times, what was appropriated was not enough.
“Once we communicate a figure to government and if money is not released completely, retirees will be affected because these are absolute figures of verified retirees,” he said.