PTAD registers 4,370 pensioners North East zone

The Pension Transition Arrangement Directorate, PTAD, at the weekend revealed that it has successfully captured the biometrics of 4, 370 pensioners, in the North-East zone of the country.
This was contained in the interim report from the zone as shown in a statement is issued by the Public Affairs department of PTAD.
According to outcome to the verification exercise of Civil Service pensioners which covered Taraba, Adamawa, Bauchi and Gombe, the Directorate was able to capture the biometrics of 4, 370 pensioners, a figure which represents about 75 percent of the projected number of pensioners in those four states.
The team, which was personally headed by the Executive Secretary of the Directorate, Barrister Sharon Ikeazor, travelled through the four states within a week to carry out the exercise.
Those who did not have Bank Verification Number (BVN) during the exercise, according to the statement, were given on-the-spot assistance to the banks to obtain their BVN in line with the transparency initiative of the PTAD under the Executive Secretary.
Barr Ikeazor has, since assumption of office, reiterated her determination to weed out ghost pensioners from the books and records of the Agency.
The Directorate also visited the hospitals to capture those who were indisposed.
Earlier, in a similar exercise of checking the books, about 9,000 pensioners who did not have their BVN details were weeded out of the records of the Agency across board.
According to the Executive Secretary of PTAD, “we are not only determined to clean up the books in line with the zero-tolerance initiative of the President, we are poised to remove the negative perception which the Directorate has suffered before this new administration.
“We will continue to insist that the right things are done in a manner that will enhance the operations of the Directorate to meet its core mandate to pensioners”, she said.
Meanwhile, arrangements are already afoot to carry out the verification exercise of Borno and Yobe states which were earlier delayed.
The Directorate will also be carrying out the verification exercise for the South-South, South-East and South-West states in the first quarter of next year in a bid to have comprehensive database of pensioners across the country. Addressing some of the Pensioners in the North-East zone, Sharon Ikeazor noted that the Agency’s intention is “primarily to ensure that no one pensioner is left out in the exercise. We try as much as possible to go the extra mile in ensuring that every eligible pensioner is captured in our database. That is the only way to ensure equity and all-inclusiveness”.
According to her, “pension right is human right. It is not a favour for the average pensioner but a right which is guaranteed in the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”