Fed Govt Owes Over N90bn Pension Liability To Defunct Agencies

The federal government is currently indebted to the staff of defunct agencies to the tune of N90billion as pension arrears.

This was disclosed by the Director, Customs, Immigration and Pensions Department of the Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD), Mr Abdullah Abubakar, who represented the Managing Director of PTAD at a workshop for pension correspondents in Abuja.

A breakdown of the outstanding reveals that the defunct Nigeria Telecommunications (Nitel/Mtel) has the largest with N73bn unfunded liability which translates to 81 per cent.

Others are Delta steel (N7. 9bn), NICON Insurance (N4. 9bn) and New Nigeria Newspaper (N2. 9bn).

There are currently 92,373 pensioners drawn from 265 agencies under the PTAD.

The director said the amount remains a concern for the directorate, adding that several engagements were ongoing to sort the funds to offset the liability.

Abubakar said: “A good progress had been made by the government and the directorate but it is still far from the destination.”