PTAD Holds Training on “I AM ALIVE” for Union Executives, Pension Desk Officers

Dr Chioma Ejikeme, PTAD Executive Secretary 

The Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD) has successfully held the maiden edition of a sensitization and training program on the “I AM ALIVE” Confirmation Solution, organized for Pension Union Executives and Pension Desk Officers of Ministries, Departments and Agencies of pensioners who retired under the Defined Benefit Scheme.

Over 300 participants from the North East, North West and North Central were in attendance for the 3-day event which held from June 21-23, 2022 in Abuja, the nation’s capital.

In her welcome address, the Executive Secretary, Dr Chioma Ejikeme said “You may recall that PTAD launched the “I AM ALIVE” Confirmation Solution in October 2021 as a pilot program for 50,000 pensioners.

At the launch, we explained the purpose and focus of the “I AM ALIVE” Confirmation Solution. We premised our justification on the need for PTAD to continuously update its pensioner database as a means of ascertaining verified pensioners that are alive and should continue to receive their monthly pension.

We explained that the pilot program was intended to test the applicability, ease of usage and user-adaptation of the solution, following which final adjustments would be made before deployment across the nation for all our pensioners.

The training program taking place this week is therefore for this primary purpose – to ensure that our Union Executives and Pension Desk Officers can use this “I AM ALIVE” Confirmation solution without any difficulty; that they can assist our pensioners in understanding how to use the application, and that they can respond to basic enquiries and questions about the confirmation process.

The training has been organized to first give an understanding of why we are deploying “I AM ALIVE”, what we expect as the impact and benefits to be derived, and what we see as likely challenges. We will also explain the role we believe that Union Executives and Pension Desk Officers should play.

The “I AM ALIVE” Confirmation Solution is the crucial next step that we have to make in our journey to ensuring that all our, esteemed pensioners, senior citizens who have served this country, can enjoy their hard-earned pensions without the hardships of the past.

The tedious, challenging and expensive field verification exercises of the past must end. Pensioners must be able to confirm their aliveness from the comfort of their homes, or at the very least, within close proximity to their residences. They should also be able to resolve their complaints without unnecessary stress.

We want them to be able to contact PTAD with ease, and to be treated with respect and dignity. This project and all others we have implement in the past, have been designed towards this end goal”.