The Military Pensions Board, MPB, has commenced payment of Security Debarment Allowances, SDA, to military retirees and next of kin’s of deceased military retirees who are entitled to the debarment allowances with the qualified year for beneficiaries put in 2017.
Chairman, Military Pensions Board, MPB, Rear Admiral Saburi Lawal, who disclosed this in Abuja yesterday, noted that the commencement date for the payment was effective yesterday, January 5, 2023. He said the payment would cover the first and second tranches, which is for the first and second quarters in 2023.
Rear Admiral Lawal emphasized that the payment was in fulfilment of the Presidential approval of the provisions of the reviewed Manual of Financial Administration, MAFA, 2017.
“The beneficiaries of these payments are: military retirees on the MPB database who retired before 9 November 2017, deceased military retirees who were alive when the MAFA was signed on 9 November 2017 and non-pensionable retirees who retired before 9 November 2017 but were only paid gratuities,”, he said.
It would be recalled that the non-payment of this allowance for years had resulted in protests by retired veterans and other ex-personnel across the country on the grounds that they were being denied their legitimate entitlements until President Buhari waded into the matter.
The MPB statement read: ” Sequel to the approval given by the President and C-In-C, President Muhammadu Buhari, for the payment of the Security Debarment Allowance, SDA, to military retirees who originally were not covered by the 9 November 2017 effective date and the agreement reached at the ensuing tripartite meetings of the Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Finance and representatives of the Veteran Associations.
“The Military Pensions Board (MPB) wishes to inform our esteemed military retirees and the general public that the Board has commenced payment of the first and second tranches (that is, for 1st and 2nd Quarters 2023) of the SDA to eligible military retirees/Next of Kins (NOKs) of deceased military personnel.
“The payment, which is in fulfilment of the Presidential approval of the provisions of the reviewed Manual of Financial Administration (MAFA) 2017 will commence on Thursday 5 January 2023.
“The beneficiaries of these payments are: military retirees on the MPB database who retired before 9 November 2017, deceased military retirees who were alive when the MAFA was signed on 9 November 2017 and non-pensionable retirees who retired before 9 November 2017 but were only paid gratuities.
“However, our esteemed retirees are please requested to note that the SDA is calculated as a function of 10% of the retiree’s annual basic salary as at the time of retirement multiplied by the number of years served in the services.”