Rivers State Pension Reform Bill 2019 Awaits the Governor’s Assent.

Rivers State Pension Reform Bill 2019 has passed through the third reading and other legislative proceedings in the House of Assembly and is now awaiting the Governor’s assent.

The bill seeks to repeal the Rivers State Contributory Pension Scheme for Employees in the Public Service Law (No.7 of 2009) and the Rivers State Contributory Pension Scheme for Employees Law (Amendment No.1 of 2012).

The bill is part of efforts to review of Rivers State Contributory Pension Scheme of 2012 as a way of addressing the plight of pensioners and civil servants in the State.

Chairman of the Committee on Pensions, Head of Service, and Secretary to the State Government, Benebo Anabraba, said that the bill, when signed into law, would take into cognisance, those retired up to June 2019.

Benebo explained that the bill also addresses the issues bordering on the access of funds by families or those overseeing wills of dead retirees.

Other features of the bill are that it totally repeals the previous pension laws and merged the new as well as old laws governing pensions.

Speaker of the House, Ikuinyi-Owaji Ibani, added that once the bill becomes functional, pension bodies would collapse into one. Hence, there will be only one pension board to oversee all pension matters for retirees.