General
Pensioners Only Experience Few Payment Issues—PTAD
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
The Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD) has claimed that pensioners only witness a few payment issues, which it said should become a thing of the past very soon.
The Executive Secretary of the agency, Ms Chioma Ejikeme, while speaking at a Sensitization and Collaboration Forum, which had critical stakeholders in attendance, said efforts are being made to make the process seamless.
She explained that the event was put together to carry stakeholders along, especially security officials, so as to weed out fraud from the system.
Ms Ejikeme said PTAD was ready to collaborate with other agencies to curb pension fraud and resolve issues regarding pension payments to the pensioners under the Defined Benefit Scheme (DBS).
“The Directorate has deemed it fit and important to engage these group of stakeholders in order to continually re-strategize and come to terms with the realities of pension payments and its attendant challenges.
“The pension industry had been swamped with complaints of extortion by fraudsters and phone calls demanding for money in order to quicken computation and payment of outstanding liabilities,” she said.
“It is important for agencies that like ICPC, and EFCC to really understand what we do, because of the perception of pension admiration out there as many people think PTAD keeps pensioners’ funds, which is not true.
“As such, we want to make sure that our processes and the way we conduct our payments is very well known to these agencies not just them, but also the general public,” she disclosed.
“Certainly, there are challenges in payment arising from the Government Integrated Financial Management Systems (GIFMIS), but the magnitude is really not significant.
“Consequently, we are here today to look at some of the minor challenges while we sit with the relevant stakeholders and look at how to address them and also get input from the financial managers of the government,” Ms Ejikeme stated.
On his part, the President of the Nigeria Union of Pensioners (NUP), Mr Godwin Abumisi, lauded the efforts of PTAD in managing their pension and stated that they had never had it so good.
“Indeed the union and its teeming members will be eternally grateful to the federal government and the National Assembly for the establishment of PTAD via the Pension Reform Act of 2014 (as amended). The establishment and operations of PTAD is far better than where we are coming from,” he said.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Federal Ministry of Youth Development has expressed its readiness to support 150,000 young Nigerians with N110 billion.
The Director-General of the National Orientation Agency (NOA), Mr Lanre Issa-Onilu, disclosed this on Thursday in Kano at the launch of the five nationwide enlightenment campaigns on government policies, national values and identities, security awareness and disaster preparedness.
He said over 600,000 students have so far benefited from the N59 million disbursed under the Nigeria Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) scheme.
The director general, who was represented by Mr Williams Dogo, Director, Legal Services of the agency, said that NELFUND was available to all qualified Nigerians in public tertiary institutions, noting that the sensitisation programme, with the theme Nationwide Sensitisation on Five Thematic Areas, was designed to deepen citizens’ knowledge of government initiatives.
The NOA boss explained that the campaign would highlight the presidential directive on flood mitigation, which provided for the release of N3 billion to each state in 2024 for drainage clearance and relocation of vulnerable communities.
He said that 700 schools had been renovated nationwide as an intervention to improve learning facilities in rural areas, stating that more than 15,000 new security personnel had been deployed nationwide to address diverse security challenges.
“It is our intention to carry out security awareness campaigns reaching no fewer than three million Nigerians in each state through media engagements, advocacy visits to traditional and religious leaders, rallies at markets and motor parks, as well as town hall meetings,” he said.
On national values, he said that reorientation campaign would focus on patriotism, unity and campaigns against extreme graduation practices that contradict cultural norms, adding that the campaign would also familiarise Nigerians with the current national anthem, which was changed by President Bola Tinubu.
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
Nigerians will have to cough out more money to obtain their international passports because the Nigeria Immigration Service has increased the fees.
In a statement signed on Thursday by the Public Relations Officer of the agency, ACI AS Akinlabi, it was disclosed that the new fees would take effect from Monday, September 1, 2025.
It was disclosed that the 32-page passport with a validity of five years will now to for N100,000 and the 64-page 10-year passport is now N200,000.
The immigration explained that the upward review of the prices was “to uphold the quality and integrity of the Nigerian passport.”
“The review which only affect passport application fees made in Nigeria,” it stressed, adding that, “Nigerian passport application fees made by Nigerians in the Diaspora remain unchanged at $150 for 32-page with 5-year validity and $230 for 64-page with 10-year validity.”
“The service reiterates its commitment to balancing quality service delivery with the need to ensure Passport services are accessible to all Nigerians,” the statement concluded.
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
President Bola Tinubu on Thursday returned to Nigeria after travelling to Japan and Brazil for official functions.
He landed at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja in the early hours of today almost two weeks after he left the country through same route.
He was received by senior government officials, including the Minister of the FCT, Mr Nyesom Wike; the National Security Adviser (NSA), Mr Nuhu Ribadu; the Governor of Kaduna State, Mr Uba Sani; the Governor of Imo State, Mr Hope Uzodinma; and the Deputy Senate President, Mr Barau Jibrin; among others.
Before heading to Japan for the Ninth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD9) in Yokohama from August 20 to 22, the President, according to a statement by his Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Mr Bayo Onanuga, he had a stopover in Dubai.
Mr Tinubu precisely travelled out of Nigeria on Thursday, August 14, 2024, for the two-nation trip to Japan and Brazil.
After leaving Japan, he zoomed to Brazil to woo investors and held talks with the Brazilian leader, Mr Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
He was able to convince the country’s petroleum firm, Petrobras, to return to Nigeria after it left a few years ago. He also helped to enable a direct flight from Brazil to Nigeria.
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