Payment of the first and second Security Debarment Allowances (SDA) tranches to veterans of the military and the Next of Kin (NOK) of deceased servicemen has begun, the Military Pensions Board (MPB) has announced.
Rear Admiral Saburi Abayomi Lawal, the board’s chairman, said in a statement that the payment, which began on January 5, 2023, was made in accordance with the presidential approval of the terms of the revised Manual of Financial Administration (MAFA) 2017.
This was in consequence of President Muhammadu Buhari’s approval of the Security Debarment Allowance (SDA) payment to military retirees who were initially not covered by the effective date of November 9, 2017, as well as the agreement reached at the ensuing tripartite meetings of the Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Finance, and representatives of the Veteran Associations.
The beneficiaries of these payments are the military retirees listed in the MPB database who retired prior to November 9, 2017, the deceased retirees who were still alive on that date when the MAFA was signed, and the non-pensionable retirees who left their positions prior to November 9, 2017, but only received gratuities.
The SDA is calculated as a function of 10 percent of the retiree’s annual basic salary as at the time of retirement multiplied by the number of years served in the services.
The Board advised all affected military retirees and the heirs of deceased service members to get in touch with their banks to learn more about their entitlement.
