FCT Area Councils Staff Pensions Board has called on those who retired between 2005 and 2015 to report to claim their benefits.

“We still have 132 persons who retired between 2005 and 2015 but have not applied for their pensions,” Nanzing Nden, the Board’s director, said at a news conference in Abuja on Wednesday.

“We do not have their complete records. We have their files, but we don’t have their Pension Administrators Certificates to enable us to process their payments,’’ he added.

The director noted that the board has paid N8 billion to 1,217 retirees from 2016 to date.

He added that over the past five or six years, the board paid N1.8 billion as monthly pensions to more than one million retirees under the old pension scheme.

“We have also maintained a good life insurance policy and paid N896 million as death insurance benefits to dependants of those who died during the period under review,’’ he said.

Mr Nden added that the board is working to pay retirement benefits ahead of the retirement date.

“We are still lagging. For example, we just received the minister’s approval for N170 million to pay those who retired in October.

“Our plan was to have paid October retirees by July or August,’’ he said.

Mr Nden added that the board was determined to complement the Pension Management System by developing an effective workflow system.

“We have been able to train Pension Desk Officers quarterly to ensure that they are abreast of developments at the National Pension Commission,’’ he said.

He commended the FCT minister, Muhammad Bello, and the FCT permanent secretary, Olusade Adesola, for their support.

“We have our funding essentially from the Federal Government, the FCT Administration and the Area Councils who are our major stakeholders,’’ Mr Nden said.

(NAN)