The Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD) has hailed President Muhammadu Buhari for prioritising payments of pensions.

PTAD said Mr Buhari, since his regime’s inception, had made pensions payments “an un-written first line charge.”

PTAD executive secretary Chioma Ejikeme, who disclosed this at the South-West Stakeholders Forum in Akure on Friday, said the directorate’s commitment to the welfare of its pensioners remained sacrosanct.

Ms Ejikeme noted that PTAD had made giant strides and was committed to continuing to build on such successes since its last stakeholders’ forum for the South-West in Ibadan in 2022 and had carried out a series of activities to make the lives of pensioners better.

She said through the unwavering support of President Buhari, PTAD had completely liquidated the inherited unfunded liabilities of all the defunct/privatised agencies handed over to PTAD in 2017.

Ms Ejikeme, however, revealed that only NITEL/MTEL had a balance of 36 months, which the directorate was fully committed to liquidating.

“It is our prayer that the president-elect will be as favourably disposed towards the pensioners of the Defined Benefit Scheme as the administration of President Buhari has been,” noted Ms Ejikeme.

She added, “Our journey from field verifications and mobile verifications to putting together a solid database of pensioners, benefit computation, ensuring the regular payment of monthly pensions and paying long overdue pension arrears to pensioners has been a progressive one.”

(NAN)