The Governor of Kaduna, Nasir El-Rufai, has approved the payment of gratuity and death benefits to retirees and families of deceased civil servants at the state level and across the 23 local government areas.

In a statement issued on Monday in Kaduna by the Executive Secretary of the Kaduna State Pension Bureau, Salamatu Isah, she said that the governor approved the release of the sum of N3,105,000,000 for the payments.

While giving a breakdown of the approval, Ms Isah said that N1 billion was allocated for the payment of local government retirees, N600 million for the payment of state retirees under the Defined Benefits Scheme.

Ms Isah further said the sum of N1.5 billion was allocated for the payment of Accrued Rights to retirees under the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS).

She said the names of shortlisted beneficiaries would be sent to the Pension Desk Officers across the 23 LGAs and all Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs).

The Executive Secretary also said that the names will similarly be made available on the social media handles of the Pension Bureau for wider dissemination.

She recalled that the state government paid gratuities and death benefits of batches 1 to 16 of beneficiaries at the state level, and that batches 1 to 14 of LGA pensioners under the Defined Benefits Scheme had also been paid.

She said that once all necessary arrangements have been put in place, the Pension Bureau would commence screening for the payment of batch 15 of local government and batch 17 of state retirees.

Ms Isah stressed that the screening of the retirees would be done at the various headquarters of the three senatorial zones of the state.

(NAN)