Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State, has said his administration inherited a pension liability of N14.3 billion when he assumed office in May.
El-Rufai made the disclosure at the maiden edition of the African Pension Award organised by the World Pension Summit Africa in Abuja.
“When we got sworn in May this year, we inherited pensions and gratuity deficit of 14.3 billion unfunded; we are still grappling on how to resolve that,” he said.
The governor also said that his administration also inherited a partly funded defined pension contribution scheme of N4 billion.
El-Rufa’i said the government, under the guidance of the National Pension Commission, had redrafted a new pension reform law for the state as part of efforts to strengthen pension administration.
He said that the state executive council had already approved the draft law which would be forwarded to the state assembly for approval.
“Actually the state executive council approved it just yesterday (Oct. 6); that will strengthen the pension regime in Kaduna state to be consistent with the provision of Pension Reform Act of 2014,” he said.
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The governor expressed the hope that in seven to eight years time, the pension scheme in the state would be fully funded to take care of retirees benefits.
On investment, the governor advocated a significant reduction in interest rate on lending by financial institutions in the country.
He disclosed that the state government was investing in infrastructure to create an enabling environment for investment, and was also subsidising farmers to attract investment in the agriculture sector.
The Governor of Akwa Ibom, Udom Emmanuel, said that his state had been operating the defined benefit scheme over the years.
Emmanuel said his administration had successfully cleared pension and gratuity arrears of local government retirees.
– NAN/News 24
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