The Kaduna State Government has made N920 million available for the payment of unpaid pension payments, including gratuities and death benefits.

According to a statement made by Sir Kashim Ibrahim House, the payout schedule, dated March 9, 2023, includes retirees from the former Defined Benefits Plan for state and local governments.

The statement further revealed that local government beneficiaries would receive N520 million while state pensioners would receive N400 million.

Governor Nasir El-Rufai had in November 2022 approved N900 million for the payment of Accrued Entitlements for retirees and relatives of deceased beneficiaries under the new Contributory Pension System.

According to Prof. Salamatu Isah, the Executive Secretary of the Kaduna State Pension Bureau, the sum covered batch 54 for retirees from the state and local governments as well as the families of the deceased.

Isah continued by saying that the Pension Funds Administrators are in charge of paying retirees under the contributory pension plan and that government payments are limited to prior savings.

She claims that these savings, also known as Accrued Rights, represent the retirees’ entitlements from before the Contributory Pension Plan began in 2017 and are paid to PFAs rather than to specific beneficiaries.

The Executive Secretary had stated that N600,000,000 had been provided to the state pensioners and families of the deceased, while N300,000,000 had been allotted to the retirees and families of the deceased in local government.

Two weeks prior to the November 2022 release, El Rufai had approved N1, 160,000,000.00 for the payment of gratuity for batch 17 local government pensioners, batch 19 state government retirees, and batch 19 relatives of deceased under the previous defined benefits scheme.