Enugu State Pension Bill Rises to N500m Monthly

• Enugu State Pension Bill Rises to N500m Monthly

The Governor of Enugu State, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, says the state’s pension bill has risen to over N500m per month, up from an average of N200m under previous administration.

Ugwuanyi, while speaking during a meeting with retirees and pensioners at the Government House in Enugu on Wednesday, said the transparent approach by his administration had ensured the capture of a larger number of retired civil servants in the pension safety net, according to a statement.

He said, “Today, we run a pension bill of over N500m every month. This means that for each year, we pay an estimated N6bn to our senior citizens. It also means that by the end of our first term in office, this bill will be around N24bn.

“However, we are happy that in spite of the huge burden on the government, our efforts have been making life a lot more meaningful for our senior citizens.”

Ugwuanyi lamented the situation where some retirees were unable to receive their monthly pensions and blamed it on the failure of those affected to be captured in the biometric registration programme embarked upon by the government in 2016.

He expressed the willingness of the state government to create another window to enable those that were not initially captured to be added to the database.

He praised the pensioners for their unflinching support and prayers for his administration and urged them to take advantage of the new window to properly be documented.

Ugwuanyi also announced plans to adopt the contributory pension system as a means of ensuring that retirees from the state and local government service were better taken care of upon retirement.

He said he planned to enthrone a regime of simplicity and transparency that would ease the burden of chasing after pensions by senior citizens while also ridding the system of corruption.

Ugwuanyi, who said a committee that would work out the modalities towards the adoption of the Contributory Pension Scheme had commenced work, promised that the implementation would take place soon.

The Chairman, Nigeria Union of Pensioners, Enugu State, Damian Udeani, while delivering his address, commended Ugwuanyi for the unwavering disposition of his administration towards the welfare of workers in the state.

He urged him to do everything within his powers to ensure that the hiccups in the pension payment system were cleared in order to ease the burden on the senior citizens.