Are 10 insurance firms owing the Federal Government’s Pension Transitional Directorate Department (PTAD) N22 billion meant for the Pension Legacy Fund? Yes, says PTAD. Yes, but. .., say some of the firms.

The fund includes the liabilities and assets of pension funds of erstwhile pension offices and treasury funded pensions of parastatals, universities and colleges of education in charge of pensioners under the old pension scheme, known as the Defined Benefit Scheme (DBS).

The PTAD, under the Pension Reform Act (PRA) 2004, now PRA 2014, is charged with pension management under the DBS for pensioners who did not transit to the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS).

The Directorate has been paying the affected pensioners since its was established in August 2013. However, investigations by The Nation show that while the 10 affected insurance firms have since transferred the pension liabilities back to PTAD as mandated by the Pension Reform Act, they are yet to transfer the assets worth N22 billion to the Directorate.

Already, PTAD is screaming blue murder that the non-remittance of the assets has made it difficult for it to properly pay pension arrears. PTAD claims that the insurance firms have held onto the pension legacy fund in contravention of the Act.
A source listed the firms to include NICON Insurance Plc, UNIC Insurance Plc, LASACO Assurance, Custodian and Allied Insurance Plc, Standard Alliance Life Assurance, and AIICO Insurance.

Others are Goldlink Insurance, Industrial and General Insurance Plc, Nigerian Life and Provident Company and Leadway Assurance.

Leadway Assurance, according to the source, recently paid N330.2 million it claimed to have held to PTAD. Similarly, Custodian and Allied and LASACO are said to have paid N148 million and N309 million, as first instalments.
NICON Insurance is said to have more than half of the fund in its custody, worth N12 billion.

PTAD Executive Secretary, Mrs. Sharon Ikpeazu, explained that the agency, which charged with pension management under the DBS for pensioners who did not transit to the CPS, had been paying the affected pensioners since its establishment.