FG Owes Pensioners N62.82bn Accrued Rights, This is how long Pensioners have to wait.

Head of Information of the Nigeria Union of Pensioners, Bunmi Ogunkolade, has called on the Federal Government to pay arrears of accrued right, totaling N62.82bn to pensioners under the Contributory Pension Scheme. She said the demand was necessary because civil servants due for retirement were at the risk of waiting for one year before getting their accrued right.

He said, “The major issue right now is the backlog of accrued rights of pensioners. Contributory pension scheme started in 2007; but before then, people had been in service and deductions were made from their salaries.

“Government then came up with the idea of paying the accrued money before contributory pension began in 2007; but the amount is so huge and the administration of Goodluck Jonathan did not pay anything to pensioners from the amount.

“This present government began to pay the money and it has paid up to November 2018. The money is being paid monthly. This means that anyone that retires this year cannot get paid until it reaches the turn of the month he retires in 2020.”

He added, “The total amount for the one year is N62.82bn. This is the figure we got from the National Pension Commission when we held a meeting with its management two weeks ago. This is what is in the budget. We believe government can clear this backlog instead of monthly payment so that those who are retiring now can get their money immediately.”

Federal Government has now released accrued rights up till December 2018.