The National Pension Commission (PenCom) has said the commission automated the annual pre-retirement verification and enrolment exercise to avoid exposing prospective pensioners to the hazards associated with COVID-19.
Speaking at the Pension Desk Officers (PDOs) workshop on the Online Enrolment Application held in Abuja on Monday, PenCom’s Commissioner Technical, Anyim Nyerere, said the transition from physical verification to online was out of the need to observe the necessary safety measures as directed by the federal government.
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Prior to 2020, it was an established norm within PenCom to conduct physical annual retirement verification and enrolment exercise on the federal government’s employees of the Treasury Funded Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) scheduled for retirement within the next fiscal year.
The exercise was usually aimed at validating and determining the retirees’ accrued pension liabilities for budgetary allocation by the federal government.
“PenCom regrets their inability to conduct this physical annual pre-retirement enrolment exercise due to the Global COVID-19 pandemic,” Nyerere said.
The Commissioner said PenCom has developed an Online Enrolment Application with the capabilities to register, verify and enrol prospective retirees and provide the guidance note accordingly which will help to compute the retirees’ retirement benefits.
“This nouveau application, which will be hosted on the Commission’s website, will enable prospective retirees to log on to register with their details on the Retiree Registration Module (RRM),” he said.
He tasked the PDOs to use their knowledge gained during the workshop to guide prospective retirees to get verified and enrolled on the online application platform.