The Military Pensions Board (MPB) said Thursday that it has commenced electronic verification of pensioners across the country.
Chairman of the MPB, AVM Paul Irumheson, said this while briefing journalists in Abuja.
He said the pilot phase of the exercise commenced with the verification of 10,800 retirees made up of 300 each from the 36 states of the federation.
He said the objective of the exercise was to verify the continued existence of pensionable retirees, thereby confirming their eligibility for pension payments, while swiftly removing ineligible individuals, such as those who are deceased or otherwise unqualifiede from the board’s payroll.
He said that although the physical verification had traditionally aided the Military Pensions Board in maintaining a thorough and dependable database, essential for precise budgeting and pension disbursements, several challenges had emerged.
He said the challenges encompassed the advanced age of pensioners, the prohibitive expenses of transportation, the security hazards linked to road travel and the financial strain imposed on pensioners residing abroad who need to travel to Nigeria for verification, among other factors.
“Therefore, to ease the process of future verification exercises and sustain the integrity of the pension database, the Military Pensions Board has developed a system for the electronic verification of pensioners.
“The system takes pensioners through multiple stages of a verification process that ends with the generation of a reference number, which is sent to pensioners via text message and email,” he said.
He said military pensioners would be required to download the application from the Google Play Store (Android Phone users) or the AppStore (iPhone users) for verification.
He said the streamlined process would involve pensioners opening the application, consenting to the attestation and providing their bank details, including bank and account numbers, while also acknowledging the terms and conditions to access the system.
He emphasized that biodata verification would necessitate either the National Identity Number (NIN) or driver’s license of the retirees.
He said the retirees would need to supply their phone numbers, email addresses and Bank Verification Numbers (BVN) for validation purposes.
“Pensioners’ ATM card details and ATM card pin are not required for the confirmation process,” he said.
He assured the pensioners and the next-of-kin of deceased personnel on timely disbursement of their benefits
