The Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) has assured its retirees that the delay in implementing a long-awaited pension increase is due to ongoing verification challenges, not neglect.
The clarification came over the weekend when the Fund’s management, led by Executive Director of Finance, Samuel Ayodele Olufemi—representing the Managing Director, Barrister Oluwaseun Faleye—met with the NSITF Pensioners Executive Committee at the Fund’s headquarters in Abuja.
Olufemi disclosed that resolving pension issues has been a top priority for Faleye since he assumed office last year.
“The Managing Director met a lot of issues on ground upon coming to office, but the one that gives him sleepless nights is pension. He wants to do it. But he wants to do it right,” Olufemi told the pensioners.
According to him, a major challenge lies in properly verifying beneficiaries. Some retirees on the payroll are reportedly close to 100 years old, and previous verification exercises were both costly and logistically difficult. Many pensioners, he noted, had claimed they were unable to leave their homes for physical verification.
He added that the Fund is working on a more efficient, cost-effective process to ensure transparency and accuracy without further burdening retirees.
At the meeting, the pensioners’ representatives pressed for urgent action on several fronts: implementation of pension increments as directed by court judgments, enrollment into the National Health Insurance Scheme, and revival of the Pension Fund Board of Trustees.
Reassuring them, Olufemi emphasized the MD’s commitment to staff and retirees alike:
“The MD is a visionary person. He is somebody to whom staff welfare is very critical. And that includes ex-staff.”
Chairman of the NSITF Pensioners, Aliyu Danlami, commended the Faleye-led management for the reforms already underway and urged swift intervention to address retirees’ pressing concerns.
