Imo govt stops ghost pensioners, saves N281m

Imo State Governor Emeka Ihedioha has said  the state saved N281m by “flushing out ghost pensioners” out of  its  pension scheme.

Ihedioha, who spoke  at Imo stakeholders’ luncheon  at  Government House in Owerri, said  his administration  was able to save the money through the  introduction of  biometric verification  for all the pensioners in the state.

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The governor said his prudent approach to the finances of the state had raised its Internally Generated Revenue from the N250m  in May to N1bn this month.

He  said  the goal of his administration was to make Imo the best three economies in Nigeria by 2025 and the best 10 in Africa by 2030.

Ihedioha  said, “We laid out a vision to become one of the top three most developed economies in Nigeria by 2025 and rank within Africa’s top

10  economies by 2030. We also set out to achieve this by leveraging our abundant human capital and natural

resources to build an economy anchored on good governance, wealth creation, value for money and rule of law.

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), rated Imo State the Least Corrupt State in their 2nd Corruption Survey. I would like to acknowledge many of you who called to congratulate the  government and our people on this positive development. Similarly, our country’s leading economic newspaper, BusinessDay, ranked our state as the fastest growing economy in Nigeria in 2019.

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“We are not unmindful of the huge burden laid on us by these outstanding ratings and the challenge of sustaining a positive public perception. We are, therefore, committed to redoubling our efforts to hold our performance high-grounds.” Punch