The Federal Government has released N13.89bn for the payment of pensions for its workers who retired in 2022.

The National Pensions Commission announced this Wednesday in an advertorial obtained by the punch titled ‘Federal Government releases N13.89bn for payment of accrued rights for retirees from the Contributive Pension Regime who retired in 2022’.

He stated: “The National Pension Commission is pleased to inform all its stakeholders, in particular retirees from Treasury-funded ministries, departments and agencies who retired in the year 2022, that the Federal Government has released the sum of N13.89bn for the payment of your accrued pension rights.

“Accrued pension rights represent a worker’s benefits for the last few years of service through June 2004, when the CPS went into effect.

“Consequently, PenCom is processing remittances to the different Retirement Savings Accounts of the affected retirees, and their Pension Fund Administrators will inform them in a timely manner.

“Finally, PenCom appreciates the efforts of Your Excellency, Mr. Chairman, for your tireless support and commitment to implementing CPS and ensuring the well-being of retirees.”

The Director General of the National Pensions Commission, Aisha Dahir-Umar, had earlier revealed in her report on the pension industry for 2021, that the Federal Government paid a total of N980.18bn to retirees from funded Ministries, Departments and Agencies with treasury funds from the start of the Contributory Pension Regime in 2004 to December 2021.

She said: “In addition, the Federal Government continued to fund the Retirement Benefit Bond Redemption Fund account. With the release of N100.29bn for the payment of accrued rights to treasury-funded MDA retirees, this brought the full amount released by the Federal Government to the RBBRF account, from inception to December 31, 2021, to N980.18bn”.

According to her, the most significant development in the pension industry in 2021 was the successful reduction of the Federal Government’s outstanding pension liabilities under the Contributive Pension Regime.

She said PenCom has obtained presidential approval of N159.46bn to defray some aspects of the Federal Government’s outstanding pension liabilities under the CPS.

Consequently, it said, N40.55bn, being the outstanding accumulated rights of 6,282 retirees and 2,329 deceased employees, were paid during the year.

He added that N66.83bn were remitted to the Retirement Savings Accounts of 85,743 retirees and 693,229 active employees, the deficit being 2.5 percent in the employer pension contribution rate as of December 2021.

The balance of N52.08bn was processed in fiscal 2022, it said.