Pension: Kaduna to pay N15bn arrears of 5yrs

The Kaduna State government has approved the payment of N15 billion as arrears of gratuity, pension and death benefits owed retirees in the state public service since 2012.

State head of service, Hajiya Bariatu Y. Mohammed, who stated this at a press briefing after the state executive council meeting this week, said details of implementation of the payments would be made public by the Pension Bureau.

It would be recalled that last week, Governor Nasir el-Rufai launched the payment of retirement benefits to workers that have retired under the new contributory pension scheme.

Hajiya Bariatu said, “At that event, the governor announced that the state government will settle the N15bn arrears of gratuity and death benefits once the State Executive Council approves the mode of paying of the liabilities.”

She announced that the Kaduna State Executive Council approved the modalities for settling the N15.57bn outstanding liabilities of retirement and death benefits for public servants in the state.

This means that 5,777 retirees and families of deceased workers will begin to get their dues, and the payments will start with the oldest retired staff.

The service head reiterated of the commitment of the state government towards reducing the stress encountered by public service retirees and explained the process for payment of the arrears.

“Payments will be made to both state government and local government retirees on the basis of oldest retirees first. State government retirees will get N7.2bn, made up of N5.7bn as gratuity and pension for 2,056 persons and N1.497bn as death benefits for relations of 483 deceased workers.

“Former local government workers are to be paid N8.35bn, made up of N6.13bn as gratuity and pension for 2,299 retirees and N2.2bn as death benefits for relations of 939 deceased workers,” she stated.