Pensioners Must Access Benefits with Ease, PTAD Boss Insists

James Emejo in Abuja

The Executive Secretary of Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD), Dr. Chioma Ejikeme, has vowed to put an end to the tedious, challenging and expensive field verification exercises for pensioners under the Defined Benefit Scheme (DBS).

She said “I Am Alive” Confirmation Solution, which was launched by the directorate in October 2021 as a pilot programme for 50,000 pensioners, remained the crucial next step aimed at to ensuring that pensioners and senior citizens who had served the country, can enjoy their hard-earned pensions without the hardships of the past.

Ejikeme, at the I Am Alive confirmation training programme for union executives and Pension Desk Officers (PDOs) of Ministries, Departments and Agencies of government (MDAs) in Abuja, insisted that going forward, pensioners must be able to confirm their aliveness from the comfort of their homes, or within close proximity to their residences.

She said, “They should also be able to resolve their complaints without unnecessary stress. We want them to be able to contact PTAD with ease, and to be treated with respect and dignity.  This project and all others which we have implemented in the past have been designed towards this end goal.”

The PTAD boss said the solution was particularly introduced to enable the directorate to continuously update its pensioner database as a means of ascertaining verified pensioners that are alive and should continue to receive their monthly pension.

According to her, the pilot programme was intended to test the applicability, ease of usage and user-adaptation of the solution, following which final adjustments would be made before deployment across the nation for all our pensioners.

She said, “We believe that PTAD’s effort to meet its mandate is enhanced by the strong collaboration that exists between the respective pension unions, Pension Desk Officers and PTAD.

“We believe that once the union executives and PDOs can confidently use the application, they can support our efforts to educate our pensioners and provide guidance and hand-holding where necessary for them to easily carry out their “I Am Alive” confirmation.