Kaduna govt threatens to suspend benefits to pensioners with invalid BVNs

The Kaduna State Pension Bureau has announced that pensioners on the defined benefits scheme who have invalid or duplicate BVNs will be suspended from the pension payroll by July 2018.

A statement signed by the executive secretary of the Kaduna Pension Bureau, Dan Ndackson advised affected retirees to effect necessary corrections at their banks and present printed evidence from their respective banks to the Pension Bureau promptly. The full list of the 1345 affected retirees is available on www.kdsg.gov.ng.

The Pension Bureau reminded the public that the bureau started a new verification system for pensioners on the old defined benefits scheme on 1 June 2018. This system requires that pensioners show up at designated banks once every 90 days to submit a thumbprint. The Pension Bureau explained that this biometric verification scheme using the branches of commercial banks requires the utmost accuracy.

“The success of the government’s initiative to discontinue the physical verification of pensioners depends on having accurate details for each pensioner, including bank account numbers and BVNs,” the bureau said.

In its effort to discontinue physical verification, the Pension Bureau said that it forwarded its pension payroll for both state and local government retirees to the Nigeria Interbank Settlement System (NIBSS) for validation. NIBSS has forwarded a validation report which revealed that out of the 19,751 retirees on the defined benefits pension payroll, 18406 have valid BVNs. However, 1345 retirees have issues with theirs BVNs, with 1255 having invalid BVNs and 90 with duplicate BVNs.

The Pension Bureau affirmed that any affected retiree that neglects to effect the necessary corrections to their BVNs will be dropped from the payroll and will not be reinstated until they fully comply.