The National Pension Commission (PenCom) has pledged to clear the 20-year debt owed retirees under the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS).

The Director-General, PenCom, Ms Omolola Oloworaran, made the pledge during a breakdown of how the bonds taken by the Federal Government would be spent.

She explained that of the N758 billion bond approved by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to clear outstanding pension liabilities, N253 billion would be dedicated to clearing accrued rights.

Also, she said N387 billion would be committed to pension increases owed in the past 20 years of the CPS while N107billion has been committed to the Pension Protection Fund to augment pensions for low-income earners.

She explained that accrued rights are entitlements due to workers who were working with the Federal Government before the inception of the CPS in 2004 and, of course, workers who have three years or more to their retirement date.

She said: “We have been hearing a lot about delays in pension payments in the last few months that I took over as the DG. What this has done is that it will enable us to clear the backlog of accrued right payments. With the intervention of N758billion, those delays will no longer happen. It will be a thing of the past once the bond is issued. So, first of all, N253 billion has been dedicated to that.

“Secondly, we also have N387 billion, which have been committed to pension increases meant to have been done since 2007, almost two decades ago where some pension increases have been pending without the government paying for them. So, yes, it’s almost two decades ago that pension increases have been done without payment. But President Tinubu has taken these issues seriously and will be paying all outstanding pension increases from 2007 till date.

“The third category, which I am very passionate about, is the Pension Protection Fund.’’

A total of N107 billion has been committed to it. Pension Protection Fund is expected to augment pensions for low income earners to enable them earn a living. Since the enactment of the law in 2014, this is the first time that the government is contributing to this fund. So, once the bonds have been issued and funds disbursed, retirees who are earning low pension will have the joy of their pensions being augmented through these funds that have been approved.’’

Speaking on steps taken to ensure the funds reach the beneficiaries promptly, she said what they were doing was to ensure that they worked with relevant agencies to ensure that the processes that would lead to the issuance of the bonds were concluded in record time.

She assured that once this was done, the Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs) would begin crediting the Retirement Savings Accounts (RSA) of retirees who would then go to the PFAs to claim their entitlements.

Incidentally, she said, the commission held a forum with the PFAs where they committed to ensuring that the payments are made to retirees immediately the bond issuance is concluded and funds disbursed to the RSA account.

So, the PFAs will monitor this, PenCom will have oversight and ensure that they are paying benefits as retirees come to make claims for their entitlements, she added.