Kaduna releases N920m for pensions, gratuities payment

The Kaduna state government says it has released N920 million for the settlement of outstanding pension liabilities, which include death benefits and gratuity.

According to a statement issued on Tuesday, the payment, which was scheduled for March 9, 2023, comprises state and local government pensioners in the old Defined Benefits Scheme (DBS).

The Kaduna government said out of the N920 million released, “state pensioners will get N400 million while local government beneficiaries will receive N520 million”.

According to the state government, N900 million was given to both local and state pensioners in 2022.

“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 statement reads.

Salamatu Isah, executive secretary, Kaduna State Pension Bureau, said the amount covered batch 54 for the state and local governments retirees and families of deceased persons.

Isah said payment of retirees under the contributory pension scheme is being done by the Pension Funds Administrators (PFAs), adding that the government will only pay past savings.

She said such savings, known as accrued rights, are 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 a breakdown of the N900 million payment, Isah said N600,000,000 had been allocated to the state retirees and families of deceased persons, while N300,000,000 was allocated to local government retirees and families of the deceased.

“The November 2022 pensioner 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),” the state government said.