Bauchi Assembly passes contributory pension scheme bill

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the executive bill was presented by Gov. Bala Mohammed, seeking to establish state and local government contributory pension scheme.

Mr Dan Bello, the Chairman, Joint House Committee on Local Government, Finance and Public Service, presented the report of the committee at plenary on Thursday.

Bello said the bill went through in-depth scrutiny by the committee.

He said the bill would make adequate transitional provisions to guarantee continuous payment of benefits to civil servants in the state after retirement.

“It aspires to ensure that every person who has worked in the public service and self-employed person, who participated in the scheme, received his benefit as at when due.

“This will invariably assist individuals by ensuring that they save to take care of their livelihood at old age.

“By so doing, it has been codified with a uniform set of rules, regulations and standards for the administration and payment of retirement benefits,” Bello said.

He said that based on public opinion received at the public hearing of March 3, the committee recommended that the bill should be allowed to undergo third reading.

According to him, the bill, when assented to, will make it mandatory for states, local governments and private sectors to adopt and implement the scheme for their employees.

The lawmakers, after a few minutes of debate on the bill, unanimously adopted the report and passed the bill for the third reading.

The Speaker, Abubakar Sulaiman, directed the clerk to transmit the bill to the governor for his assent after it was read for the third time.