Federal Workers Face Salary Woes as Government Fails to Pay Amidst Budget System Glitches

A sense of unrest is growing among federal civil servants, ministries, departments, and agencies (MDAs) as they face delayed January salaries, coupled with an outstanding backlog of N35,000 in wage awards.

The predicament arises from the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation (OAGF)’s inability to finalize the 2024 Appropriation on the Government Integrated Financial Management System (GIFMIS) platform, preventing the release of personnel warrants for January 2024 salary payments.

Bomoi Muhammed Ibraheem, the General Secretary of the Nigeria Civil Service Union (NCSU), confirmed that union members have not received their salaries. Frustration is palpable among federal civil servants, as expressed by an employee at the federal secretariat in Abuja, who stated, “The economic situation is unbearable, all because of government policies. The N35,000 wage award promised after the removal of the subsidy on petrol was only paid in September. Now, the government has refused to pay us January salary, thereby compounding our woes.”

The situation has prompted responses from individual organizations, such as the National Mathematical Centre in Abuja, which, in an internal memo dated January 31, 2024, titled “Delay in the Payment of January 2024 Salary,” informed its staff that “January 2024 salaries will be delayed beyond normal” in an effort to address the growing restiveness among employees.