FG Releases N16.67bn For Accrued Pension Rights Under CPS
BY EDMOND ODOK – The National Pension Commission (PenCom) says the government has released N16.67 billion for the payment of Accrued Pension Rights to 2021 retirees of Treasury-funded Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs).
In a terse statement in Abuja, PenCom said; “The Federal Government had earlier settled all arrears of accrued pension rights payments to the verified and enrolled retirees up to December 2020.”
No fewer than 190,158 MDAs’ retirees were last month paid N884.58 billion as accrued pension rights from the inception of the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) till December 31, 2020.
According to the Commission’s yearly report for 2020 posted on its website, the Federal Government released N65, 909,343,247.5 into the Retirement Benefits Bond Redemption Fund, RBBRF, account for the payment of accrued rights to retirees MDAs.
The report said: “As a result of this, the Commission approved the release/remittance of the entire amount to the RSAs of 11,385 retirees and deceased employees of treasury-funded MDAs.”
More so, the Commission said the government released N11.82 billion for payment of accrued pension rights of retirees under its MDAs in January.
The Commission, in July, notified all its stakeholders, particularly retirees of treasury-funded MDAs that President Muhammadu Buhari had approved its submission on the payment of some critical aspects of the outstanding pension liabilities of the Federal Government under the CPS.
According to PenCom, the settlement of the outstanding accrued pension rights of verified and enrolled FGN retirees and compliance with the reviewed rate of pension contributions are significant developments that have resolved the challenges in these aspects that have lingered since 2014.
The Commission had on July 26 informed that N5 billion would be disbursed the next day (July 27, for payment of the 2.5 per cent differential in the rate of employer pension contribution for Federal Civil Service retirees and employees.
