Adeyefa Adegboyega and Folorunsho Akinbode were both workers at Union Bank before they retired in 2010. Both also moved from a pension plan to an annuity program with African Alliance Insurance Ltd. African Alliance has failed to pay Adegboyega’s annuity arrears since May, and it has defaulted on Akinbode’s arrears since June.

Adegboyega told FIJ that his pension fund administrator (PFA) before 2015 was Crusader Sterling Pension Managers, while Akinbode said his was Future Unity Glanvills Pensions now Veritas Glanvills Pensions Limited.

Adegboyega explained to FIJ that following the Pension Reform Act of 2014, he opted for an annuity plan with African Alliance. The same was the case for Akinbode.

Both Akinbode and Adegboyega decided to transfer their pension funds from their previous pension fund administrators to African Alliance Insurance Ltd.

Adegboyega told FIJ that Crusader Sterling first paid N6.869 million premium to African Alliance then later paid N184,032, both on his behalf.

Akinbode said Future Unity paid a N2.07 million premium then a N583,744 addition to African Alliance. While Adegboyega’s transfer of funds took place in 2015, Akinbode’s PFA transferred his funds to African Alliance in 2014.

“On the N2.07 million (premium), they were paying me N20,703 while they paid N5,856 (addition), making both to be about N26,000, and it is an agreement for a life annuity,” Akinbode explained on Saturday.

Adegboyega explained that he was to get N70,940 from his N6.869 million and N1,915 from his 184,032, which is a sum of N72,855 monthly as a life annuity.

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‘I HAVE BEEN UNABLE TO BUY MY DRUGS’

The annuity arrears owed Adegboyega and Akinbode have begun to make life difficult.

Akinbode told FIJ that he was on high blood pressure medications.

“I’m on blood pressure drugs, and it is that money that I use to buy the drug and feed my family. That is the only money I have now, I have no other source of income for me,” Akinbode said on Thursday.

“I should also have been owed for May, but I contacted their AGM in their Ibadan branch, Mr Kazeem, he was the one who collected May’s payment for me.”

For Adegboyega, he said the last time he got his annuity from African Alliance was in April.

“They have not paid May, June, July, August and even September is not sure,” he told FIJ.

OTHER ANNUITANTS ARE SUFFERING IN SILENCE

Adegboyega told FIJ that many others were in his shoes but they did not know how to seek help.

FIJ also found a July report by TheCable sharing how some aggrieved retirees gathered in a Lagos office complex asking to see the company’s management for their unpaid annuities.

While the National Pension Commission (PENCOM) is the regulatory of pension fund administrations, the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) oversees insurance organisations.

“I have sent an email to NAICOM, and anytime I send an email to African Alliance, they will say they were processing it,” Adegboyega told FIJ.

Adegboyega and Akinbode, who both reside in Ibadan, confirmed to FIJ that African Alliance’s branch office in Ibadan was locked up.

FIJ called African Alliance Ltd on Wednesday on two phone lines, but there were no responses. After calling the company phone lines, FIJ contacted a staff who identified herself as Chioma and the company’s human resource manager.

“They are making payments but the payments are going very slow, and the pensioners are not getting it as a lump sum, they are getting it one month before the other,” Chioma explained.

“Messages were sent out to a lot of them, but I guess a lot of them also didn’t get the message that the payments are going on in batches.

“For the office at Ibadan, they are working from home because of fuel, so that’s why.”