PENSION HELP DESK TO BE ESTABLISHED IN ABUJA

By NBF News

In view of the hardship being faced by pensioners in obtaining their entitlements, a brand new Pension Help Desk is to be set up in Abuja to attend to all matters relating to complaints by pensioners, the Head of Service of the Federation Prof Oladapo Afolabi has said.

When fully operational the Help Desk, which will be established at the Block B of the HOS' office, will be equipped with modern gadgets to deal with questions and services affecting pensioners' payments such as omission from payroll, receipt of text messages without payment being credited to their accounts among others.

Prof Afolabi made this disclosure in a goodwill message delivered during a conference marking the 9th Edition of Pensioners' Day celebrations organised by the Nigeria Union of Pensioners (NUP) in Abuja over the weekend. He solicited for the patience of pensioners as the service moves to rectify errors identified with the biometric capturing exercise of 2008.

'However, we are aware that the entire biometric process is not fool proof. We urge those who are affected to remain calm and give us more time to remedy the process', he said.

Earlier in his address, the President of NUP, Alhaji Ali Abatcha commended President Goodluck Jonathan for the release of N9.3 billion in November for the payment of pension arrears. He called the attention of the authorities to the plight of pensioners in federal parastatals and local governments who are yet to receive their pension since 2002 despite participating in all verifications.