The Kano State government has ordered 4,000 public servants in the state civil service to proceed on compulsory retirement.
This is following the end of the 5-year service extension policy.
This policy, introduced by the previous administration under Dr. Abdullah Umar Ganduje, allowed workers to extend their service beyond the usual retirement age of 60 years or 35 years of service.
The policy was initially put in place to reduce the government’s financial burden in paying gratuities to new retirees, but it became a barrier to creating new job opportunities.
After a thorough review, the Abba Yusuf administration found that 4,000 workers were benefiting from this policy.
The Head of Service, Abdullahi Musa, announced that these workers are expected to submit their retirement letters by the end of September.
Although they were due to retire earlier, the government has given them until December 2024 to fully retire.
The government plans to fill these positions with new employees, creating more job opportunities.
Musa also highlighted that 13,000 civil servants were hired under the previous administration.
From abortion rights to immigration, highlights of Trump, Harris presidential debate
Of these, 10,000 were retained, while 3,000 were let go due to various issues, including being underage or still in school.
He said, “After the abrogation of the Ganduje’s Pension law, we established a Senior Civil Servants Committee which investigated the actual number of persons affected by the law. After due diligence, the committee identified 4,000 persons affected and supposed to go by 1st December 2024, which means at the end of this month, September, they would submit their retirement notices.
“But out of the lenience of the Government, they were given a three-month usual retirement window to submit their retirement notices and prepare for full retirement by December 2024.
“Don’t forget that at the end of former Governor Ganduje’s administration, he employed 13,000 civil servants, and when this Government came into power, in Governor Abba Kabir’s mercy and good heart, he didn’t sack them. We rather screened the 13,000 civil servants and out of which we fully engaged 10,000 back to service on a permanent and pensionable basis, while the remaining 3,000 are those who were found wanting and they were sacked.
“Those 3,000 among them were NYSC members, undergraduates who are still in school, underage persons of 13 years and below, and some overage persons; these are the persons that we eased out from the 13,000 civil servants employed lately by Ganduje.”
