By Gregory Mmaduakolam
Abuja – NICON Insurance Limited on Thursday in Abuja handed over landed properties worth N13 billion as “Legacy Funds’’ to Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD).
Mr Stephen Ojo, the Executive Director, Finance and Administration, NICON Insurance Limited, while handing over the particulars of the landed properties to PTAD, said the company was happy to fulfill the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the directorate.
According to him, the pension liabilities have been a big burden to the insurance company.
He expressed joy that NICON used the pension it collected to buy assets rather than stocks which probably would have reduced in value by now.
Ojo advised insurance companies to use their pension to buy assets which could yield greater dividends that could be quickly converted to assets.
He expressed happiness that NICON had freed itself from the pension liabilities as well as joined the league of other insurance companies that had handed over their pension liabilities to PTAD.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that the Pension Reform Act, of 2014 vested all pension assets, funds and liabilities to PTAD following the consolidation of treasury funded parastatals in August 2015.
NAN also reports that the Act requires PTAD to take over the administration of Legacy Pension Funds and assets in custody of insurance companies and boards of trustees of treasury funded parastatals.
However, some companies did not comply with the directive, while companies such as Leadway Assurance Plc and African Alliance Insurance Plc had already complied and transferred all or part of the outstanding funds to the directorate.
Mrs Sharon Ikeazor, the Executive Secretary for PTAD while accepting the particulars of the landed properties from NICON Insurance, expressed appreciation to NICON for fulfilling the MoU between it and the directorate.
She said that on assumption of office in 2016, the Federal Government was yet to recover the legacy pension assets and funds worth over N23 billion in the custody of insurance companies.
Ikeazor said that so far, over N880 million had been recovered within the last six months, bringing the total recovered sum to N5.6 billion.
She explained that the directorate issued demand notice to insurance companies involved in the transfer of these outstanding funds into PTAD’s dedicated e-collection account with Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and only two insurance companies had responded.
Ikeazor advised insurance companies that were still holding unto legacy funds to transfer them to PTAD without further delay.
She said the intention of the Federal Government in releasing these funds was to grow them for the prompt payment of pensioners.
She expressed satisfaction that NICON Insurance that managed the funds for over 50 parastatals and agencies under the Defined Benefits Scheme had joined companies that had transferred the ownership of fixed assets to PTAD.
Ikeazor said that government was intolerant to the delay in the transfer of the legacy funds to the directorate and warned that the wheel of justice would roll faster towards achieving higher level of compliance.
She said the directorate in collaboration with NAICOM, ICPC, EFCC and the Ministry of Finance would continue to enforce the right of pensioners towards early recovery of legacy funds within the next 18months