About 33,168 retirees of the 33,356 under the new pension scheme will not be entitled to any monthly stipend 18 years after their retirement, the Director-General, National Pension Commission, Mr. Muhammad Ahmad, has said.The affected pensioners, according to him, are those that opted for programmed withdrawal policy with different pension fund administrators as at February this year. He told our correspondent that only 188, which is less than one per cent of the retirees captured under the new scheme, would enjoy pension throughout their life time.Under the PRA 2004, programmed withdrawal is one of the means of assessing the retirement benefits in which the PFAs sign a contract with the pensioner to pay him regularly for a maximum number of 18 years.The other option, by which retirees can access their benefits under the new pension scheme, according to the Pension Act, is the annuity, offered by the life insurance companies.The Act indicates that a life insurance underwriter will sign a contract with the retiree that chooses annuity, to pay him for life.However, figures from the PenCom indicate that as at February this year, only 188 retirees had taken up the annuity policy contract while over 33,168 retirees were using programmed withdrawal.The implication is that, while the pensioners using annuity will be entitled to payment till death, the other pensioners will stop earning payment in a maximum of 18 years after the commencement of their programmed withdrawal contract.A Pensioner, Mr. James Olawale, who retired two years ago, said, he was not enlightened about annuity before he retired.He said, "Many retirees did not know about annuity; we were just led to take the programmed withdrawal because we thought that was the only option available to us. Some of us were given just 15 years period to earn our programme withdrawal money. After 18 years, what are we going to be eating'"Another retiree, Mrs. Felicia Bankole, said, "After retirement, my PFA instructed me on how to access programmed withdrawal; they did not tell me that I had the annuity option."The Director-General, PenCom, Mr. Muhammad Ahmad, who noted that only 188 retirees took the annuity policy, attributed the low patronage to poor enlightenment on the part of the retirees.He said, "There is also the need for both the insurance and pension industry to work together to educate and enlighten Nigerians because our requirement is that no retiree should be compelled to adopt any form, the choice is given, you either take a programmed withdrawal or an annuity."
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