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From Noah Ebije, Kaduna
Kaduna State Government said it had spent N19.9billion on pension, gratuity and death benefits of its civil servants within the first one year under the administration of Governor Uba Sani.
Executive Secretary, Kaduna Pension Bureau, Professor Salamatu Idris Isah, stated this at a one day sensitisation on Data Recapture Exercise for Kaduna State Public Servants under the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS), yesterday. It was organised by the Kaduna State Pension Bureau in collaboration with the Pension Funds Administrators (PFAs) Operating in the State, has in attendance representatives of civil servants from all the MDAs in the state.
Speaking to journalists shortly after the programme where the PFAs and officials of the Pension Bureau made presentations on the importance of accurate data to seamless pension payments, Professor Isah urged the civil servants to perfect their records to avoid challenges after retirement.
She said, though the state was still facing the challenge of inherited pension liabilities, the Pension Bureau boss said, the state had between May 2023 and May 2024, expended N13 billion on the state monthly pension scheme and local government pension.
She also said N6.9 billion has been expended on gratuity payment within the same period.
“The essence of the programme is to ensure that all Kaduna Civil Servants are well documented by the Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs), because that is the only way to ensure a seamless receipt of their retirement benefits.
“We want to prevent the challenges of errors in names, BVN not tallying with name or National Identity Number (NIN) not captured.
“The reason we had to do this data recapturing is that a good number of the civil servants were captured when there was no BVN or NIN. We also got to know that the PFAs have not been able to do data capturing properly for all the public servants of Kaduna State. Even though they have registered with the PFAs, the PFAs getting detailed information about their clients when they are retiring is significant.
“So, with this sensitization, civil servants who have not done proper registration with their PFAs will know what to do. From the presentations, the civil servants have been told what and what they need to do.”
Of the state’s pension expenses, she said: “From May 2023 to May 2024, the current government has expended N13 billion. In the state monthly pension scheme, we have expended seven billion Naira, while the local government has expended five billion Naira, making the N13 billion
“In the area of gratuity payment, we have expended N6.9billion. So, that is quite a lot within one year. And we have paid over 2,000 people in terms of gratuity and death benefits in the new and old scheme.
“She however noted that the only challenge is the huge liabilities the state has to settle.
Though the liabilities have reduced drastically, it is still something that we need to put more effort into, especially that we have disengaged teachers that have not received their gratuities and death benefits,” she said.
