September 10, 2022

The National Pension Commission (PenCom) on Saturday explained why its Director-General, Mrs. Aisha Dahir-Umar, did not appear before the House of Representatives committee on Finance on Thursday.

A statement signed by the commission’s head of Corporate Communications Department, Mr. Abdulqadir Dahiru stated that the director-general was absent because she was out of town attending an official engagement.

PenCom was scheduled to defend its 2021/2022 Budget and present the 2023-2025 Medium Term Expenditure Framework/Fiscal Strategy Paper (MTEF/FSP) to the House on Thursday.

At the hearing, the Deputy Chairman, House Committee on Finance, Hon Saidu Abdullahi, frowned at the absence of the commission’s director- general.

“It is pertinent to note that the DG’s absence was because she was out of town attending an official engagement.

“However, the Commissioner for Finance, the Director and Head of Accounts and the Deputy Director and Head of Financial Planning represented her, which is the usual practice whenever the director-general was unavailable.

“The director-general takes invitations from the National Assembly seriously and ensures that she attends personally except when the exigencies of her office make it impossible.

“In which case the relevant commissioner and management staff of the commission represents her,” the statement said.

The statement further stated that the management of PenCom was pleased with the observation by the House committee on the quality and comprehensiveness of the reports the commission submitted to it.