By; FUNMI ADERINTO, Kaduna
Kaduna State Government led by Governor Nasir Ahmad el-Rufai has embarked on the sensitisation of accessing 25 per cent RSA as equity for residential mortgage and transfer window in the state.
Speaking at the event which was held in Kaduna, the Executive Secretary Kaduna State Pension Bureau, Prof. Salamatu Idris Isa, said they find this sensitisation very significant to the benefit of staff.
In her address, she said the sensitisation of civil servants on pension commission and to all public servants to have overview of what the state government is doing for the past seven years.
Prof. Salamatu noted that many of them have challenges of pension issues, hence the sensitisation has been of a value to everyone present.
“Speaking on the mandate of the state government, the sensitization is carried out for the best interest of the retiree’s. We made budgetary estimate for existing pensioners, and officers exempted from the pension scheme, those under defined benefits.
“We also paid gratuities and pension to the existing pensioners, we also received budgetary allocation from the ministry of finance on behalf of the state government and made payment to pensioners as at when due,” she said.
According to her, in November 2022, they paid total accrued rights to six thousand six hundred and forty-five beneficiaries and the total amount is sixteen billion four hundred and seventy four million Naira.
“However, out of this nine billion seven hundred and sixty three Naira has been paid to five thousand, three hundred and thirty-three disengaged workers since 2017, we were able to reduce the grudges of disengaged workers,” she said.
She explained that disengaged workers were those that were disengaged in 2017, while N9.7 billion Naira has been paid to disengaged workers.
“It is worthy that despite the payment of 16.4 billion Naira, we still have outstanding liability of over 14.9 billion to six thousand eight hundred and eighty one staff and everyday, we keep receiving new retirees into this particular bracket,” she informed.
Speaking on the amount the state government has spent, she said, “it is a continuation every month and we put them into the data base and we quickly know the accrued right, as at today, we have spent in both contributory pension and defined benefits scheme, over 36.6 billion Naira and we still have more.
“We have paid 15,607 beneficiaries. Last week we brought out a list, those we have scheduled for payment but have not come out to claim them. We have over 1.4 billion Naira in the account that people have not claimed, but we have scheduled them, we brought out the list on anyone that we have scheduled.
According to her, as at last year the grant contributions, government contributions to individual RSA account is N12.2 billion, the amount of five per cent of the monthly wages is N8.2 billion Naira, giving a year total of N29.2 billion Naira from 2017 to 2022 as at August last year.
She noted, “when we see what the civil servants have contributed into their various RSA accounts and what the state government has contributed into this RSA account, we arrived at N74 billion Naira within the last seven years as investment asset in Kaduna State.
“Consequently, there are various contributions, employee contributions as at last year July are 14, employer contribution is N29.7 billion, total contributions is N43 billion then returns on investment is N30.6 billion that gives us the N74.5 billion,” she informed.
Prof. Salamatu said, “in Defined Benefits Schemes, if we want to look at what we have spent, we have paid N8,962 that is for state, state and local government is N20.2 billion while in the contributory pension scheme we have N6,645 amounting to N6.4 billion, the total amount state government has expended in the two contributory scheme is N36.6 billion.
“Also, from 2016 till today, we have paid batch 54, and we keep tracking whoever has not gotten his payment, once they complain to pension Bureau, we track with that PFA and see why he has not been paid.
“Again, we have put more strategies on ground, that every month, once we make payment to PFA within a period of two weeks and maximum period of one month, they should be able to report back to the bureau on who and whom they have paid and how many are remaining from that schedule and what’s the reason why they have not been paid.
“For state disengaged employees, they have N1,885 amounting to 5.3 billion while in local government disengaged employees, they have paid N3,438 amounting to N4.3 billion, giving us a total as at November, of N9.7 billion. Therefore, N9.4 billion is for disengaged staff,” she explained.
Explaining further, she said that the state government does not only pay gratuity and death benefits, but they also pay monthly pensions on the old scheme.
“The state government is not just spending money on gratuity, but it has responsibility on paying pensions as well.
“We have spent 36 billion in gratuity and death benefits, that is the amount that has been expended on monthly pension,” she stressed.
The executive secretary also said that from January 2016 to November 2022, the state has expended N28.9 billion on monthly pensions in defined benefits scheme, while the local government has expended N28.9 billion in the payment of monthly pensions in defined benefits scheme.
“That is old scheme if you put the two together, the state government has paid N67.9 billion in monthly pensions,” she said.
