The Benue State Government has announced plans to pay another five months salary arrears to civil servants, with the payments already captured in the 2025 budget.
Commissioner for Finance, Michael Oglegba, disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday in Makurdi.
Oglegba noted that the state had already cleared five months’ arrears in 2024 and would continue the phased payments based on available funds.
“When we assumed office, we inherited a backlog of 48 months in unpaid pensions and salary arrears. Some workers were owed up to 12 months, others seven,”; he explained.
The commissioner said payments have been made to Benue State University, BSU, some MDAs, and are ongoing for others with longer arrears. “We’ve never claimed to have cleared all salary arrears, it’s an ongoing process,”; he said.
He added that institutions such as the College of Education still have about seven months of unpaid salaries, which the government is working to clear. However, he stressed that pension debt remains a major challenge.
“We discovered that for three years, many pensioners were not captured in government records. After proper documentation, the pension arrears jumped from N400 million to N1 billion,”; he said.
