By Chimezie Godfrey
Kaduna State Government has released N920 million for the settlement of outstanding pension liabilities which include death benefits and gratuity.
A statement issued from Sir Kashim Ibrahim House stated that the payment schedule which was dated March 9, 2023, comprises state and local government pensioners in the old Defined Benefit Scheme(DBS).
The statement further disclosed that state pensioners will get N400 million while local government beneficiaries will receive N520 million.
It will be recalled that last November, Governor Nasir El-Rufai had approved N900 million for the payment of Accrued Rights for retirees and families of deceased beneficiaries under the new Contributory Pension Scheme(CPS).
The Executive Secretary of Kaduna State Pension Bureau, Prof Salamatu Isah, had said that the amount covered batch 54 for the state and local governments retirees and families of the deceased.
Prof Isah further explained that payment of retirees under the Contributory Pension Scheme is being done by the Pension Funds Administrators (PFAs), adding that government will only pay the past savings.
According to her, such savings which is known as Accrued Rights, is the retirees’ entitlements prior to the commencement of the Contributory Pension Scheme in 2017, and they are paid to PFAs instead of individual beneficiaries.
Giving breakdown of the payment, the Executive Secretary had said that N600,000,000 has been allocated to the state retirees and deceased families, while N300,000,000 was allocated to local governments retirees and families of the deceased.
The November 2022 release came two weeks after Governor El Rufai had earlier approved N1, 160,000,000.00 for the payment of gratuity for batch 17 Local Government pensioners and batch 19 of State Government retirees and families of deceased under the old Defined Benefits Scheme (DBS).
