The Federal Government has disbursed N177.4 billion in just four months to fulfill its pledge of wage awards for civil servants, as revealed by investigations conducted by Saturday
The wage awards for Nigerian workers were part of the agreements reached between organized labor and the government to alleviate the impact of subsidy removal from petrol, known as Premium Motor Spirit.
GovSpend, a technology platform monitoring the Federal Government’s expenditures, reported that the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation made monthly payments of N44.34 billion to the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System transaction account, which houses payment records of all federal employees.
This translates to payments made to 1,266,906 federal civil servants in four months, exceeding the budget allocation in the 2023 supplementary budget by N77.4 billion.
After President Bola Tinubu’s announcement of petrol subsidy removal in May 2023, a N35,000 wage award for six months was assured to Federal Government employees, but it was suspended after two months.
The Nigeria Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress voiced opposition to the suspension, threatening a possible strike if the government did not reinstate the payments included in the 2023 supplementary budget.
Initially projected to cost around N210 billion for four months, the approved amount was reduced to N110 billion by the government.
Following pressure from organized labor, the Minister of State for Labour, Nkeiruka Onyejeocha, promised to resume the wage awards, stating, “I am here to assure you that the N35,000 wage award payments have commenced and will be completed shortly.”
Several federal civil servants have confirmed receiving payments for the November and December 2023 wage awards, expressing relief and satisfaction.
A senior civil servant shared with The Media Talk Africa, “Payments started coming in this morning, and many have confirmed receipt within my agency.”
Similarly, an employee of the News Agency of Nigeria disclosed, “I received my payments for November and December 2023 on Tuesday, amounting to N35,000 for each month.”
