Gov Approves Payment Of 800 Retirees’ Pension

The Rivers State Governor, Chief Nyesom Wike has approved the payment of pension benefits to 800 retired civil servants in the state.
This gesture is part of the state government’s measures to commence the implementation of the State Pension Reform Law No. 4 of 2019 as amended.
The Director-General of the State Pension Board, Mr Ijeoma Samuel disclosed this during a one-day stakeholders’ meeting held at the boardroom of the board in Port Harcourt, last Thursday.
Ijeoma said the 800 pensioners are those enlisted in the first batch for payment, and have completed their biometric verification.
He explained that the 2019 Rivers State Pension Reform Law, which commenced on May 31, 2019, has a three-year window, adding that all employees in the state public service, who are to retire from service before May 31, 2022, would exit under the Defined Benefit Scheme.
According to him, the first batch of 800 retirees are those exempted by the 2019 Pension Reform Law of the state, adding that the biometric verification for the next batch of retirees exempted from the scheme would soon commence.
“The stakeholders were also informed that the 7 1/2% monthly deductions from the salary of 4,422 staff of the state public service under the Contributory Pensions Scheme (CPS) who are due to retire between January, 2019 and May 31, 2022, are to be discontinued with effect from June, 2019, having been exempted by the State Pension Reform Law 2019”, he stated.
The state pension boss urged the Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs) and National Pension Commission (PENCOM) to expedite action on refund process, so that those who retired since 2015, and other retirees from the public service would get their refunds without further delay, even as he thanked Governor Nyesom Wike for his assent to the amended State Pension Reform Law, 2019.