Governor Francis Nwifuru-led administration has started taking steps to offset over 9 billion Naira unpaid retirement benefits of the retired civil servants at the local government level and Universal Basic Education Board, UBEB in the state.
The local government and UBEB staff ceased to be active in civil service between the years 1996 and 2023.
The Executive Secretary of the Ebonyi State Local Government Staff Pension Board, Comrade Ezekiel Emeka Nwonu stated this when he and his team paid a courtesy call to Governor Francis Nwufuru in his office at Abakaliki.
Nwonu said the breakdown of the retirees' unpaid benefits showed that the initial pension arrears stand at N648,710,046.98, while the unpaid gratuity is N6,956,264,912.02.
He said the unpaid death benefits (arrears) for the deceased workforce is N746,948,420.76 but the unpaid death benefits (Gratuity) is N673,150,046.44 and the total stands at the sum of N9,025,073,426.20bn.
He disclosed that over 6,055 local government retirees are awaiting unpaid retirement benefits.
According to Nwonu, 4,920 of the retirees are still alive whereas 1,135 of them had died.
"Your Excellency, I am here with the report of my findings for official presentation to you. But summarily, we have a total of 4920 pensioners alive awaiting their unpaid retirement benefits while 1135 are dead but owed retirement benefits," he said.
Responding, Governor Nwifuru commended the Executive Secretary of the Board, Emeka Nwonu for taking proactive steps to reposition the board.
Emphasizing more on pension and gratuity, Nwifuru advised retiring civil servants to strive to process their retirement papers on time to enable them to collect their benefits immediately after retirement.
"Payment of gratuities is now every month, if you have not been paid pension, you will not be qualified to receive gratuity. Therefore I advise you to always proceed on 3 months retirement leave to enable you to process your papers so that you will be paid immediately. We are not interested in owning," the governor said.
The governor further disclosed his administration plan to assist students in public schools in the payment of NECO and WAEC fees, just as he directed that payment of gratuities would henceforth be every month.
He observed that the recent increase in NECO and WAEC fees is very challenging to most parents, and declared his administration's readiness to cushion the effect.
"I learnt that the amount for NECO and WAEC registration has been increased from 18, 000 Naira to about 34, 000 Naira and people are finding it difficult to cope with the situation. I have directed the State Commissioner for Education to calculate the number of students who are registering for the examinations in public schools so that we can look at it because we must serve the people. If we can't pay all, we can pay at least 50 per cent," Nwifuru hinted.
Victor Nwegede.
