Outgoing governor of Benue state Samuel Ortom, Sunday, said he had expended a total of ₦735.6 since May 29 2015 when he took over as governor of state.
Ortom made the revelation during the handing over ceremony to the incoming governor of the state, Rev Father Dr. Hycinth Alia, at Government House Makurdi.
He also disclosed that the total revenue generated by his administration from May 29th, 2015 to 30th April 2023 was ₦734.9 billion.
He said his administration for the past eight years had secured debt profile of about ₦187.5 billion but had through debt swap with federal government and debt servicing reduced the debt profile to ₦45.2 billion as at when he was leaving office.
Ortom said when he took over, he inherited a huge debt from pension arrears and the challenge triggered him to domesticate the Contributory Pension Scheme law in the state, which had achieved lot of success and yielded results.
According to him, “at it is today, the funds in the pensions account has swollen to about ₦8 billion with the state contributing 8 percent and the workers 10 percent.
“The resulting inability of state and local governments to pay retirement benefits of retired staff as at when due gave rise to the need for my Administration to introduce reforms in Pension.
“We therefore, domesticated the Federal Government Reforms in Pension Administration through the Benue State Pension Law, 2019 which introduced the Contributory Pension Scheme.
“Thus, where government was the sole financer under the then existing pension scheme, both the government and workers contribute 10 and 8 percent respectively of the total monthly wages of workers which is then saved in the Retirement Saving Accounts of each worker enrolled in the Scheme in four Custodian Banks (UBA, Access Bank, Zenith Bank and First Bank).
“Workers under the Contributory Pension Scheme would thus step into their retirement savings when they retire from service.”