Jigawa pension board disburses N3.4b to 1,331 retirees

Jigawa State and Local Government Contributory Pension Scheme Board, says it has commenced payment of over N3.4 billion to 1,331 retirees who exited active service upon attainment of 35 years in service between January to July this year and those who died while in active service.

This was contained in a statement signed by the Director Administration and Finance of the Scheme, Nasiru Haruna who is equally acting as the Executive Secretary of the Scheme.

The statement disclosed that, the payment was categorised into four batches. It explained that the first batch of 1,001 retired staff consists of those who retired either by reaching the mandatory retirement age of 35 years in service or sixty years by birth. Those in this group were paid N2,579,605,965.12 billion.

The second category of 241 staff are those who died while in active service. Their next of kins would be paid the sum of N730,367,087.60 million. The third batch consists of 84 retirees who retired from service and started receiving monthly pension but died before reaching their minimum period of five years after retirement. Those people would be paid N109, 561, 313. 67 million.

The last batch is made up of beneficiaries who did not contribute up to a period of five years, and the law states that for any staff to qualify to be paid from the scheme, he would to contribute for a minimum period of five years.

He said: “Under this category, we have paid one person, the sum of N2,705,459.02 million including 15% interest.

“Today we are going to pay the sum of N3,422,239,826.32 to 1,331 workers that retired/died from various State MDAs, LGCs and LGEAs”.

“The payment included retirement benefit, death benefit, death pension balance and refund of eight per cent contribution”.

The acting Executive Secretary warned the retirees to desist from involving a third party in processing their retirement benefits.

He cautioned: “The Pension Board did not, in whatever way, ask a third party to facilitate and or receive any amount from retiree before their payments are done; our services are free; never bribe any of our staff for your terminal benefits, as we worked under guidelines establishing our Board in line with Pension regulations.

“If any person asks for money within and outside the pension house to process your payment, it is a fraud and should be reported to the Board for a necessary penalty,” Mr Haruna told the retirees.

“The pension Board process payment of retirees immediately after the Directorate of Salary and Pension Administration forwards the particulars of the retiring workers to the pension Board” he added.

Mr Haruna commended Governor Namadi for releasing the sum of N3.422billion to Jigawa State and Local Governments Contributory Pension Scheme Board to settle outstanding gratuities and death benefits to 1,331 retirees in the State.

He said with the recent approval, the state government has now released over N5.4 billion to the Jigawa State and Local Governments Contributory Pension Scheme Board as bailout while the Scheme has cleared all the outstanding payment of gratuities.

Mr Haruna called on citizens of the state to continue to support the present administration with prayers in order to achieve a better Jigawa where everyone will be comfortable in the shared prosperity agenda of Governor Namadi.

Some of the beneficiaries, thanked the Governor for prioritizing issues concerning pensioners’ welfare.

One of the retirees from Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology, Ado Garba said he retired in January 2024 as a messenger.

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“Now that I have received my gratuity and pension arrears from February, I will invest more in farming to make life better for myself and my family” Mr Garba said.

Another retiree, Uwani Bako said she has received her gratuity and pension arrears, adding that she would invest in Agriculture.

She commended the governor for the timely payment of their gratuity.