By Laleye Dipo in Minna
The Director General of the Niger State Pensions Board, Alhaji Umar Ahmed, has said that Governor Abubakar Sani Bello withheld his assent to the Contributory Pension Scheme Bill recently passed by the House of Assembly because the bill did not spell out details of the contributions by all the stakeholders.
Ahmed told journalists in Minna on Wednesday that: “The private member bill did not also have the input of government.”
He argued that the state Head of Service committee decided to liaise with the lawmakers to fine-tune the bill and discuss its financial implications before it was passed “but it was passed on the day we were at the Assembly to meet with the lawmakers”.
“The bill was also not assented to by Mr Governor because it did not take into account the gap created by the two years suspension of the contributory pension scheme which is now about N9 billion,” he said.
The Director General said to save the situation “in the interest of workers”, government had come up with a new contributory pension bill, adding that the bill had passed the second reading in the assembly.
Details later…
