By Theresa Igata

The Nigerian Ministry of Defence in collaboration with the Military Pensions Board, has launched a military pension card that will allow over 100,000 retired members of the Army, Navy and Airforce access a biometric military pension card with a 4-in-1 value proposition: identification, verification, rewards, and receiving and making payments.

The project is powered by leading pan-African mobile banking and payment services company, eTranzact International PLC, to offer identification, verification and rewards to all members of the Nigerian armed forces.

eTranzact International PLC has a well-developed public sector offering with services that help identify ghost workers, plug revenue leakages, enable bulk payment of pensions, salaries, grants, etc.; opening up opportunities for growth and development.

“We are happy to be key partners in this great and commendable project in support of our courageous ex-service personnel and military pensioners. The resilience and courage of the Nigerian military is a source of joy to everyone and we hope that this pension card project not only solves identification and verification issues for the military but also gives the private sector an opportunity to offer special rewards and discounts,” says Valentine Obi, Founder and CEO, eTranzact International PLC.

The card offers immense benefits to its recipients as it can be tied to a bank account, attached to a mobile money wallet or operated as a stand-alone reloadable card. Other benefits like a 5% discount on airtime topup, discounts on airline tickets, restaurant discounts, etc., are other benefits that are possible with the card.

The card scheme powered by eTranzact, with Mastercard and Access Bank in partnership, allows holders perform financial transactions at any ATM or POS, and can also be used for Web transactions.

The 2016 Global Firepower index ranks Nigeria as the fourth most powerful military in Africa.