By Alltimepost.com
Two pieces of legislation, namely the 2017 Appropriation Bill, also known as the budget of consolidation and prosperity, and Pension Bill became law on Monday when Edo State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki assented to them.
By signing the Pension Bill, the Governor has given legal teeth to the implementation of the Contributory Pension Scheme which he touted as soon as he became the Chief Executive Officer of the state, popularly known as the heartbeat of Nigeria.
At the signing ceremony, attended by the Speaker of the State House of Assembly and other principal lawmakers in the Government House, Benin City, Governor Obaseki thanked the legislators for the speed and diligence with which they worked on and passed both bills.
He also recounted the importance and origin of the budget as well as the care and consideration devoted to its formulation.
“As you recall, last year, before Christmas, I presented this bill to you for consideration. We were very clear when we were putting this bill together that there were certain key principles and budget policies, which we showed will lead to significant change in our economy.”
Obaseki also mentioned that the government was keen, while formulating the budget, to appropriate money to reform the civil service and expressed gratitude to the House of Assembly for retaining virtually all that was asked for in the budget.
Continuing, the governor assured that based on the budget, an ad hoc committee had been set up, which had been able to source land in excess of 2500 hectares (a figure which may rise to 5000 hectares) to produce about 500 ‘agripreneurs’ in the state. He expressed commitment towards solving the pension problem in the state.
“If you recall the electioneering process,” he said, “I know we promised that by God’s grace, at the end of four years, we would have substantially resolved, if not totally eliminated all the pension arrears that we have.”
Furthermore, Governor Obaseki revealed that his government had even commenced implementation of the Contributory Pension Scheme since January and that with the signing of the Pension Bill, what was left was to start settling arrears.
