By Tukur Muntari
The Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD)says it plans to introduce health insurance scheme for pensioners as part of effort aimed at improving their welfare.
PTAD Executive Secretary, Dr Chioma Nnenna-Ejikeme, disclosed this while fielding questions from newsmen at the venue of the ongoing pensioners’ verification in Kano on Tuesday.
She said the directorate is currently working towards ensuring that pensioners benefit from the health insurance scheme of the Federal Government to alleviate their suffering in accessing equality healthcare service.
“We are thinking about getting health insurance scheme for the pensioners. We all know that the ageing population needs more of insurance for health to enable it get quality healthcare services.
“It is on the front burner, we are still at the talking stage, but I want pensioners to know that it is a project we want to make sure materialise and that is why I am committing myself by mentioning it here today,” she said.
The Executive Secretary said the directorate is committed to ensuring that pensioners are treated with utmost care so as to give them the necessary comfort.
She said the essence of the verification is to get a baseline in which every pensioner that deserve to be on the data base is captured, after which his or her arrears could be paid.
Ejikeme said about 13,000 pensioners are targeted in the North West, which has four verification centres, with two in Kaduna and one each in Kano and Sokoto states.
She said the exercise, which commenced on Monday, would last for about 10 days, adding that those who are not verified within the period could go to the state offices of the directorate to get their data captured.
“We also have an arrangement for people who are sick, if they let us know, we have a mobile verification team, they will meet them at home and get them verified,” she said.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the physical verification of the pensioners commenced on Monday simultaneously in four centres two in Kaduna, Kano and Sokoto states.(NAN)