The Kaduna State Pension Bureau says the state government has allocated N3.1 billion for the payment of gratuity and death benefits to 1,051 pensioners and the families of the deceased in the state.
This is just as the Nigeria Union of Pensioners (NUP) commended President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for reappointing Dr. Chioma Nnenna Ejikeme as the Executive Secretary of the Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD).
However, the list Daily Trust reports contains 873 names of beneficiaries that have been shortlisted for the payment of gratuity and death benefits under the defined benefits schemes for both local governments, state retirees and families of the deceased.
Addressing a press conference in Kaduna, the Executive Secretary of the bureau, Professor Salamatu Isah, said the bureau had commenced verification payment of gratuity and death benefits of the beneficiaries.
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She assured the beneficiaries that no single file would be missed during the verification exercise and urged them to come with all the required documents needed for the exercise.
She said the payment principle was on a first-come-first-served basis, adding that “delay in citing names on the list for verification payment exercise did not amount to missing file in the actual sense of it.”
She then disclosed that the verification payment team from the bureau would move to the three senatorial zones of the state as part of the processes of final payment of benefits to the beneficiaries.
She said, “In the last two weeks, we all heard the state governor, Uba Sani, allocating N3.1 billion to the State Pension Bureau for payment of gratuity and death benefits for pensioners and the families of the deceased in the State.
“And out of that amount, N2.6 billion is allocated to payment of retirees in the old scheme, while N100 million is allocated to retirees in the ministries comprising 1,051 people for both retirees and death cases.
“The total number of local government retirees we are going to pay is 542 beneficiaries, while in the state old scheme, we are paying a total of 231 beneficiaries making a total of 773 beneficiaries.
“For the new scheme which we allocated N500 million, we are paying 178 beneficiaries. You will realise that the N500 million will not be as much as we have in the old scheme of N2.6 billion. So this is what we have. The list has already been circulated.”
Meanwhile, speaking on behalf of the committee of zonal chairmen from the North Central, North East, and North West in Kaduna on Friday, the Vice President of NUP, North West, Alh. Muhammad Dankande, emphasized that Dr. Ejikeme had cleared the backlog of pension arrears and pension liabilities.
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“She managed to clear the backlog of pension arrears of pensioners under the Civil Service Pension Department, resulting from the nationwide verification carried out between 2015 and 2017.
“Furthermore, she successfully addressed pension liabilities of defunct agencies such as Delta Steel Company (DSC), Aluminium Smelter Company (ALSCON), New Nigerian Newspapers (NNN), NICON Insurance Corporation, Nigerian Re-Insurance Corporation, Nigeria National Shipping Line (NNSL), Assurance Bank, and NITEL, previously managed by the Board of Trustees/Insurance. These liabilities were significantly settled with repatriated funds from Crown Agents Investment Company in the United Kingdom, with the approval of former President Muhammadu Buhari.”
