By Thompson AbISOLA
The National Pension Commission (PENCOM) said it remains committed to ensuring better service delivery to retirees.
The PENCOM’s Head of Corporate Communications, Mr Peter Aghaowa, gave the assurance on Monday in Benin while speaking on the side lines of the verification and enrolment exercise for the 2019 pre-retirement documentation.
He said the commission was also committed to ensuring that all eligible retirees across the country in 2019 were documented ahead of the disbursement of their pensions and gratuity.
Aghaowa, however, advised all the prospective retirees to avail themselves of the opportunity to be captured in the ongoing verification exercise to avoid omission in any form.
He said the exercise was scheduled to hold between Monday and July 4 simultaneously across the 15 centres nationwide.
The commission, he added, had earlier requested prospective retirees from the MDAs to come with all originals and photocopies of their documents for verification and confirmation of enrolment into the system.
He added that for a smooth and seamless exercise, “we have also requested all Pension Desk Officers of each MDA to make themselves available at the various designated centres to authenticate the documents and endorse the retirement bond form of each potential retiree.’’
TBI Africa reports that no fewer than 3,000 prospective retirees from Delta and Edo States are participating in the documentation exercise.
Meanwhile, some retirees have expressed confidence in PENCOM’s ability to ensure service delivery in spite of the recent controversy over alleged embezzlement of pension funds.
Some of the respondents said that they were still confident that their life savings were safer with PENCOM.
A prospective retiree with the National Museum, Mr Sunny Eboh, said in spite of the recent incident,“I know our savings are safer with the commission.”
Eboh said the commission would soon overcome its current challenges.
Another prospective retiree, Mrs Grace Ojo, said that from interaction with retired former staff, PENCOM seems to be managing pensioners’ savings better than the old arrangement.
“Like every institution, the commission has to continue to improve on its service delivery mechanism,” Ojo added.
