Union demands pensioners dividend from PFAs

The Nigerian Union of Pensioners (NUP) has demanded for members dividends from their various Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs) in the country.

The President of the union, Mr Abel Afolayan, made the disclosure in an interview with Newsverge in Abuja on Wednesday.

Afolayan said that the PFAs were using their pensions to invest and getting the needed dividends without sharing the proceeds of the investment with the owners.

“You cannot be investing my money and getting the required interest or profit without accruing benefit to the original owners of the money, that is ungodly and wicked,”

According to him, the PFAs and the National Pension Commission did not specify how pensioners can benefits from return on the investment accrued from their contributions.

He added that this had left pensioners, the legitimate owners of the funds in hardship, while the PFA were smiling to the bank.

He alleged that the union had observed that retirees were short changed by wrong calculation of their benefits.

Afolayan said that many next of kins of deceased pensioners had not been able to access the entitlements of their relations, which according to him, has made life unbearable to the beneficiaries.

He said that the union was making effort to ensure that contributory pensioners entitlements were not denied, adding that the union had presented the demand of the contributory pensioners to the government.

“The Union has appeared before the joint committee on budget appropriation at the National Assembly and submitted a memorandum requesting N183 billion to fund accrued right of retiree from 2015 till date.”

He said that the union had put measures to ensure that all entitlement of pensioners were paid as when due.