I inherited over N30 Billion Pensions Debt – Okowa

Delta State Governor, Senator Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa has said his administration spends about N1 billion monthly on pensions for the payment of over N30 billion pensioners debt he inherited from past administrations.

The Governor disclosed this on Wednesday May 24, 2017, at Ogwashi-Uku during a town hall meetings with the people of Aniocha South local government area of the State.

Highlighting on his achievements for the past two years, Okowa said his administration spends more than N300 million monthly to settle pensioners in the old pension scheme and also, spends more than that to pay pensions of retired civil servants who were on the contributory pension scheme.

While noting that the contributory pension scheme remains the best, the Governor emphasised, “when we came on board two years ago, we were told, government was owing pensioners over N30 billion, we have been paying and have injected a lot of money, so, at the end of every month, for the old pension scheme and the contributory pension scheme, we pay about N1 billion on pensions alone.”

However, in a previous report by the Finance Commissioner, David Edevbie, it revealed that, Delta State Government Workers and Pensioners were owed N9.3 Billion Arrears as at end of October 2016.