Delta supports pension scheme with N14.9b, retirees get N5.6b

The Delta State Government has set a veritable platform for the Contributory Pension Scheme being deducted from workers’ salaries.
Through its counterpart funding and other contributions, the oil rich state has so far supported the scheme with over N14.9 billion.
Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan said the Pension Reform Act, 2004 was fully domesticated in the state through staff registration and opening of retirement savings account for them.
The governor, who gave a brief remark on the performance of the scheme at the 2014 Annual Lecture Series tagged: “Contributory Pension Scheme in the Delta State Public Service, its Myths, its Realities, the Prospects,” in Asaba on Tuesday, said his administration had since inception supported the scheme with close to N6 billion.
This, Uduaghan recalled, was in addition to paying retirement benefits to retirees.
He said: “Cumulatively, over N5.6 billion has so far been duly expended on the payment of 926 retirees.
“The state’s Bureau for State Pensions has successfully transferred the above funds into the Retirement Savings Account of its contributors and since 2011 till date has been judiciously crediting contributors’ Retirement Saving Account with both their monthly and government contributions.”
The Governor, represented by his deputy, Prof. Amos Utuama (SAN); flanked by the Chairman, Delta State Bureau for State Pensions, Dame Christiana Siakpere; and the outgoing state’s Head of Service, Sir Okey Ofili, said the state recently again repositioned itself for the monthly release of funds for the defrayal of backlogs.
Corroborating him, Dame Siakpere said during the period under review, the state’s bureau recorded resonant success even in the face of daunting institutional and human challenges.
She recounted how the actual implementation of the Contribution Pension Scheme took effect on March 1, 2010, when the first batch of workers retired under the scheme.
According to her, the state prepared for the “arduous journey” when that year it appointed 17 pension administrators, including the Crib Pension Managers, Evergreen Pension Managers and Oak Pension Managers, which all metamorphosed into Oak Pension Limited, to partner with the state.
“Contributions from both the government and workers were paid into an escrow account opened and wholly operated by the office of the Accountant-General of the state, with purely administrative/support services rendered by the Bureau for State Pensions.
“As a result,” she emphasized, “of the organized structure already entrenched in the CPS scheme, the merger was not only seamless but also had no negative effect whatsoever on contributors or their contributions.”