By John Shiklam
The Kaduna State Government is to commence the implementation of the new pension scheme on Tuesday by paying pension benefits to its retirees scheme.
The Executive Secretary of the tate Pension Bureau, Mr. Dan Ndackson, who disclosed this at a news conference in Kaduna yesterday, said the state government introduced new scheme to address the hardship always faced by pensioners.
He said the new pension scheme remedies the problems and failures arising from the implementation of the 2007 pension law and saddled the state with more arrears of pension and gratuity.
Ndackson explained that the new pension arrangements protects the earned pension rights of workers and end the problems that unfunded pension schemes have always created for pensioners and government alike.
He said: “The state government has nothing to gain from the contributory pension scheme, but it has raised its own contribution as an employer to 13 per cent while the worker pays seven per cent monthly. This is a pro-people decision taken to improve the welfare of pensioners”
According to him, “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.”
He added that the new system is so efficient that public servants that just retired in January and February 2017 can start earning their pension immediately.
“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,” he said.
Ndackson added state government deserves credit for devoting more of its resources to paying pensioners, stressing that government has nothing to gain from the contributory pension scheme.
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