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Kaduna State Government says it has spent N19.9 billion on pensions, gratuity and death benefits of its civil servants under Governor Uba Sani’s administration.
Prof. Salamatu Isah, the Executive Secretary of Kaduna Pension Bureau, made the revelation at a one-day sensitisation on “Data Recapture Exercise for State Public Servants under the Contributory Pension Scheme” in Kaduna.
The event was organised by the Bureau in collaboration with the Pension Funds Administrators in the state and had in attendance representatives of civil servants from all the MDAs in the state.
The Executive Secretary while speaking to newsmen shortly after the programme, enjoined the civil servants to perfect their records to avoid challenges after retirement.
According to her, “the state was still facing the challenge of inherited pension liabilities, the current administration in the state had, between May 2023 and May 2024, expended N13 billion on the state monthly pension scheme and local government pension.”
She explained that a total sum of N6.9 billion has been expended on gratuity payments within the same period.
She further explained that from May 2023 to May 2024, the current government has expended N13 billion, explaining that in the state monthly pension scheme, seven billion naira was spent, while the local government has expended five billion naira, making the N13 billion.
In the area of gratuity payment, she said they have expended N6.9 billion, saying it is quite a lot within one year and have paid over 2,000 people in terms of gratuity and death benefits in the new and old schemes.
She noted that the only challenge is the huge liabilities the state has to settle, stressing that although the liabilities have reduced drastically, it is still something that they need to put more effort into, especially as there are disengaged teachers who have not received their gratuities and death benefits.
She added that the essence of the programme is to ensure that all Kaduna Civil Servants are well-documented by the Pension Fund Administrators, pointing out that it is the only way to ensure a seamless receipt of their retirement benefits.
The Executive Secretary said they want to prevent the challenges of errors in names, BVN not tallying with a name or National Identity Number not captured, saying that the reason they had to do the 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,” she added.
With the sensitization, she noted that civil servants who have not done proper registration with their PFAs will know what to do, stressing that from the presentations, the civil servants have been told what they need to do.
