The Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD) has stated that the implementation of the Defined Benefit Scheme (DBS) Pension Harmonisation is a vital reform designed to advance and enhance pension payment equity across the country.
The Executive Secretary and Chief Executive Officer of PTAD, Tolulope Abiodun Odunaiya, described the initiative as a landmark reform aimed at restoring fairness, improving retiree welfare, and strengthening public confidence in the administration of Nigeria’s legacy pension system.
Approved under the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the harmonisation exercise represents one of the most significant policy interventions in the DBS since PTAD’s establishment in 2013 to manage pensions under the old federal arrangement.
Odunaiya explained that unlike periodic pension increases that merely raise existing benefits by a percentage, pension harmonisation goes a step further. It formally recomputes pensions using the latest approved salary structures that existed before the closure of the DBS to ensure that outcomes are determined by rank, grade level, and years of service, rather than the year of retirement.
The initiative directly addresses years of agitation by pensioners over historical disparities in pension computation. PTAD’s harmonisation programme seeks to resolve these long-standing challenges by restoring parity within the system and correcting inequities that have disadvantaged thousands of retirees over the years.
According to the Directorate, the exercise applies primarily to pure Federal Government pensioners, as well as eligible retirees under the Parastatals Pension Department (PaPD), Defunct and Transferred Agencies Pension Department (DTAPD), and the Education and Health Pension Department (TEHPD).
