Nigeria Govt Takes Possession of Colonial Pension Funds Trapped in United Kingdom

• The Nigerian government has returned home colonial pension funds used to pay British colonial officers who worked in Nigeria
• The money has been trapped in the United Kingdom for many years, and efforts over the years have been made to retrieve it
• The amount recovered has already been spent by Federal Government to clear outstanding arrears to pensioners in defunct and privatized agencies

The Nigerian government, through the Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD) has repatriated £26.5 million(N13.96bn)in colonial pension funds from the United Kingdom.

The money was recovered from Crown Agents Investment Managers Limited, which was left over from the money used to pay British colonial officials who served in Nigeria.

The Punch reports that the PTAD Executive Secretary, Dr Chioma Ejikeme, made the announcement on Thursday, 18 November at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.

Other recoveries from PTAD

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At the announcement of recovered funds, Ejikemealso stated that the directorate recovered N17.85 billion from the Board of Trustees and Underwriters of Treasury Funded Federal Parastatals as legacy pension assets.

The PTAD boss said the monies were used to defray the inherited arrears of defunct agencies and to pay off inherited outstanding pension arrears.

She said the directorate had paid over N610 billion from January 2015 to December 2021 in monthly pensions, achieving 90% of its mandate.

Her words:

“Through the unwavering support of President Muhammadu Buhari, who has been adjudged by pensioners as the most pensioner-friendly president in Nigeria, and administration which has made pension an unwritten first-line charge; the able supervision of the Honorable Minister for Finance, Budget and National Planning and our regulator, PenCom, PTAD’s management team has been able to achieve the following:

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“Full implementation of the TSA which has ensured the sanctity of pension funds and enshrined transparency in pension payments.

“Regular monthly payments of pension without fail since inception as and when due.

“Payments of long-outstanding arrears to pensioners across all the pension departments, most significantly the huge arrears inherited from the defunct/privatised agencies, and Regular engagements with pensioners and other stakeholders across all the six geo-political zones, to update pensioners on activities of the directorate.

The PTAD executive secretary also put the number of ex-Biafran police officers on its pension payroll at 303, the Guardian reports.

It will take an average Nigerian worker over 3 years to buy the new iPhone 14pro

Meanwhile, in another report, Legit.ng showed that the newly released iPhone 14pro will need huge sacrifices for an average Nigerian worker to buy.

The report showed how it will take a full savings of over three years for anyone within a pay grade of N30,000 to buy.

iPhone is seen as a status symbol among Nigerians, which explains why, despite its expensive price, it is in high demand

Source: Legit.ng