Retirees jubilated in the city on Tuesday as the Kaduna State House of Assembly passed a bill for a Social Security Scheme and for Connected Matters 2024.
The bill was sponsored by the Minority Leader of the House, Hon Ali Kalat, who also represents the Jema’a constituency.
The bill passed after the Joint Committee on Special Duties and Judiciary’s report submitted during plenary was adopted.
The Speaker of the Assembly, Hon Yusuf Liman, passed the bill after lawmakers voted.
Hon Emmanuel Bako Kantiok, a member representing the Zonkwa constituency, explained to journalists shortly after the plenary session that the law’s essence is to reduce hardship among pensioners.
“The essence of the law is to ensure that we mitigate the hardship experienced by our retirees in Kaduna in accessing their benefits after retirement.
“We have made it easy for them that at least for a start, a retiree can access 25 per cent of his entitlement irrespective of whether the State government has paid his share of entitlement.
“Before now, they couldn’t access any part of their entitlement until the Pension Bureau certified that the Start government has paid its share, but as it is now, they can access 25 per cent of their entitlement to enable them to have a better living and take care of their needs before the normal process is followed”.
Also, Hon Ali Kalat, representing the Jema’a constituency, who sponsored the bill, expressed happiness over the passage.
He said, “It is not easy for someone who has worked for 35 years and suddenly has no money to feed himself and his family. It is a deplorable condition, so I sponsored the bill.
“These people contributed this money to pension managers, and suddenly, they don’t have access to it. I felt that the best thing to do is to allow them access to the money they contributed to survive”.
The public relations officer of Nigeria Union of Pensioners Contributory Pension Scheme, Kaduna State, Idris Abdullahi, who also spoke to newsmen, said some retirees languish in abject poverty.
He thanked the lawmakers for passing the bill into law.
A bill for A law to provide for a third supplementary appropriation of funds for the Kaduna State government for 2024 in the sum of N207,207,188,147.23 scaled first and second readings.
