Precious Nwonu, Enugu
The Federal Government has commenced the payment of N18bn in outstanding severance benefits to 2,700 former employees of the defunct Nigeria Airways, more than 20 years after the airline was liquidated.
The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Taiwo Oyedele, disclosed this on Friday during a press briefing at the Federal Ministry of Finance in Abuja.
Oyedele said 2,100 former workers covered by batches one to seven had received their payments, while another 600 beneficiaries in batches eight and nine had been cleared for payment.
He said the payments amounted to N18bn in outstanding benefits owed to the 2,700 former employees.
“For more than two decades, following the liquidation of Nigeria Airways, many former employees have waited for their outstanding severance benefits. Some have grown old waiting. Some have sadly passed away, leaving their families to pursue what was legitimately due to them,” Oyedele said.
According to the minister, the payment followed President Bola Tinubu’s directive to resolve the long-standing obligation.
Oyedele acknowledged that the settlement could not make up for the lengthy delay but said the government had decided to address inherited obligations rather than allow them to remain unresolved.
“We recognise that no payment today can fully compensate for more than two decades of waiting, but it is important that government confronts these long-standing obligations rather than allowing them to remain unresolved for another generation,” he said.
The minister explained that the exercise was part of the Federal Government’s broader effort to clear verified inherited liabilities, including outstanding obligations to pensioners and indigenous contractors.
He said beneficiaries of the Nigeria Airways payments underwent extensive verification, including biometric capture and validation of their personal and banking details, to guard against fraudulent claims.
Oyedele added that further verification would be conducted in cases involving outdated records, incorrect bank details and deceased beneficiaries whose next of kin or estates still needed to complete the required procedures.
On concerns over the impact of inflation on the value of the benefits after more than two decades, the minister said the government was paying the amounts contained in the documented and verified claims.
He acknowledged that inflation had significantly eroded the value of the money but said the settlement did not provide for inflation adjustments.
Oyedele explained that the payments were being made in batches to ensure that beneficiaries whose claims had been verified did not have to wait while other outstanding cases were being processed.
He said the benefits covered former employees across different categories and were not limited to either junior or senior staff.
For beneficiaries who had died before receiving their entitlements, the minister said payments would be made to their documented next of kin or other eligible beneficiaries after the necessary legal procedures were completed.
Oyedele also disclosed that the Federal Government had settled outstanding debts owed to more than 12,000 indigenous contractors as part of efforts to reduce accumulated obligations.
He said the government initially prioritised smaller contractors with verified claims of N50m or less before extending the exercise to contractors owed up to N100m.
Larger claims running into billions of naira, he explained, could be handled separately through negotiations and instruments such as promissory notes.
According to the minister, the approach was designed to support small businesses that depend on government payments to meet salary obligations and other immediate financial commitments.
Oyedele warned contractors against paying commissions or offering inducements to government officials to facilitate the settlement of verified claims, describing such demands as illegal.
He said the government was also taking steps to prevent the accumulation of fresh unpaid obligations by making budgets more realistic and ensuring that capital expenditure commitments had identifiable funding sources.
“We will do our best to ensure that the accumulated obligations of the past do not repeat themselves,” the minister said.
Oyedele apologised to the former Nigeria Airways workers for the prolonged delay in settling their entitlements, stressing that the payments were owed benefits and not favours from the government.