Kaduna begins payment of pension benefits to retirees

THE Executive Secretary, Kaduna State Pension Bureau, Mr. Dan Ndackson, has said it will commence payment of pension benefits of 2017 retirees from Tuesday.

Ndackson, stressed that Kaduna State Government deserves credit for devoting the Paris Club refund to paying pensioners.

Addressing a news conference in Kaduna on Sunday,  Ndackson, who commended Governor Nasir El-Rufai for passing the Kaduna State Pension Reform Law 2016, confirmed that the Contributory Pension Scheme commenced in the state as scheduled on 1 January 2017.

He said the new pension scheme remedies the problems and failures that stymied the implementation of the 2007 pension law and saddled the state with more arrears of pension and gratuity.

To this end, as from Tuesday ‘we will commence payment of pension benefits to our retirees . Ndackson  further explained that the new pension arrangements will protect the earned pension rights of workers, and end the problems that unfunded pension schemes have created for pensioner and government alike.

According to him:”The state government has nothing to gain from the contributory pension scheme, but it has raised its own contribution as an employer to 13% while the worker pays 7% monthly.  This is a pro-people decision taken to improve the welfare of pensioners”

“Kaduna State has migrated all public sector workers to the contributory pension scheme. With this scheme, pensioners are spared the hardship, delayed payments and fraud that bedeviled the old scheme”

“The new system is so efficient that public servants that just retired in January and February 2017 can start earning their pension” he said.

“In preparation for this transition, we selected actuaries to determine the accrued pension liabilities in respect of each employee of the government based on the contract of service existing before 1 January 2017.

‘The actuarial valuation calculated the amount needed to pay the pension rights already built up  and those that will become payable” Ndackson added.

It will be recalled that while signing the 2017 Budget on 13th December 2016, Governor El-Rufai announced that the Kaduna State Government is ready to settle the arrears of pension and gratuity that it inherited.

Speaking at the budget presentation, Governor El-Rufai said: “I wish to inform our legislators that we shall be submitting a Supplementary Budget to enable us capture the debt refunds we have just received from the Federal Government as refund from Paris Club . Fifty-five percent of these funds belong to the state government, and the balance is for the local governments.

“We propose to apply 50% of the funds to settling the inherited arrears of gratuity and death benefits for state and local government workers. Some of these unpaid arrears date from as far back as 2010. Mr. Dan Ndackson, the Executive Secretary of the Bureau of Pension, has done a great job of sorting out these records and we will be ready to pay once the supplementary budget is passed.

“This is unprecedented, but we are happy to clear the problems created by those before us. The balance of the funds will be dedicated to rural and urban roads” the Governor said.