Salaries Of Nigerian Government Officials Climbed From N1.5tn To N3.75tn Within 5 Years – Finance Minister

The Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed, has revealed that the wage bill of the Federal Government rose by 150 percent between 2015 and 2020.

Mrs Ahmed who disclosed this at the public presentation of the 2021 budget on Tuesday, October 13, 2020, said the government officials’ wage bill, which was N1.5 trillion in 2015, climbed to N3.75 trillion in 2020.

“You can see from the presentation that I made, in 2015 the wage bill of the government, the salaries of government officials stood at N1.5 trillion. That has gone up by 150 per cent in what we have in 2020.

“And the wage bill keeps growing on a daily basis. That is the biggest expenditure in our budget and we must pay special attention to it to be able to make sure that at least what we are paying is reasonable, true and fair,” Ms Ahmed said.

The Minister also insisted that the Federal Government would not pay the salary of any member of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) not enrolled on the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS).

She believed the protests of some oil workers who earlier resisted the adoption of the IPPIS were understandable and being addressed, but felt ASUU should embrace the payroll system.

“If I may remind you, in October 2019 when the President presented the budget to the National Assembly, he said that by the end of October any staff who is not on IPPPIS should not be paid salary.

“So we waited October, January, February before we finally stopped giving excuses and actually stopped the salaries of those not on IPPIS. What is special about this (ASUU) people?

“If we can capture some tertiary institutions and hospitals who have some peculiarities, what is different about the university system that they cannot be captured?”

She insisted that a biometric capture was significant for anyone being paid from government funds.

Regarding universities laying claim to independence, Ahmed said “yes they are, in a manner of speaking. But the salaries are paid by government. You can only claim independence if you can generate your revenue and pay your salary.”

KanyiDaily recalls that ASUU had embarked on indefinite strike early March, this year 2020 due to unresolved issues with the Federal Government.