Chairman of the Oyo state Local Government Staff Pension Board, Hon. Akeem Ademola Ige, Thursday said the board is set to disburse N1.7 billion as gratuity and death benefits to public primary school teachers and local government staff retirees in the state.
The board chairman stated this while receiving the Oyo state chairman of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Oyo state council, Chief Ademola Babalola, in his office in Ibadan.
He added that the disbursement will come up this month.
Hon. Ige said Governor Seyi Makinde, being passionate about the welfare of pensioners in the state has increased the monthly allocation of funds to the board from N250 million to N500 million and as well approved a new payment plan, which will see pensioners receive their payments every three months instead of the initial four months.
Hon. Ige highlighted other initiatives put in place by the board to include the payment of pension on the 25th of every month, payment of backlog of gratuity, monthly payment of palliatives of N15,000 to pensioners, yearly payment of N10,000 Christmas bonus and the enrollment of all pensioners in the state on the Oyo State Health Insurance Scheme.
He added that the board recently organised sensitisation training programme for prospective retirees across all the geo-political zones in the state towards having a hitch- free processing of their retirement benefits.
Hon Ige, cautioned prospective retirees against patronising racketeering agents who have been known to rip off unsuspecting retirees of their hard-earned money while trying to process their retirement benefits and assured that the board has put in place a decentralisation plan to assist in mitigating the pressure on retirees during the compulsory screening exercise.