The Katsina State Government has outlined plans to clear the outstanding N20 billion gratuity arrears owed to retired workers, reaffirming its resolve to stabilise the state’s pension administration.
Chairman of the State and Local Government Pension and Gratuity Committee, Farouk Aminu, announced the move while presenting the newly enacted 2025 Pension Reform Law to journalists in Katsina.
He said the state had instituted measures to ensure that civil servants begin to receive gratuities in the same month they retire. He added that verification of liabilities accumulated between September 2023 and October 2025 was nearing completion. According to him, Governor Dikko Radda has pledged to release the necessary funds once the verification exercise is concluded.
Aminu said the state had earlier paid N23 billion to settle arrears covering the fourth quarter of 2019 to August 2023. He said the new N20 billion commitment forms part of efforts to address a backlog that has placed pressure on retirees and weakened the pension system.
He said the broader objective is to restructure the retirement process so that workers exit service with immediate access to their benefits.
Aminu explained that the 2025 Pension Reform Law introduces a dual contributory pension model aimed at ensuring sustainable payment of retirement and death benefits across the state and local government levels.
He said workers who are already retired or have five years or less until retirement will remain under the defined benefits system to protect their accrued rights. Those with more than five years to retirement will join the contributory scheme.
According to him, the government and employees under the Contributory Defined Benefits Scheme will contribute to a pooled fund managed by licensed Pension Fund Administrators, ensuring benefit payments from professionally managed assets.
He added that workers under the Contributory Pension Scheme will have monthly contributions paid into individual Retirement Savings Accounts in line with the federal model.
