The Benue State Government has announced plans to pay an additional five months of salary arrears owed to civil servants, with the allocation already captured in the 2025 budget. This was disclosed by the Commissioner for Finance, Mr. Michael Oglegba, during an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday in Makurdi.
Oglegba noted that the government had earlier paid five months’ worth of arrears in 2024 and would continue the payments in phases until the entire backlog was cleared.
“When this administration assumed office, we inherited a backlog of 48 months of unpaid salaries for civil servants and pensioners. The arrears were not uniform—some workers were owed 12 months, others seven,” he explained.
According to him, some payments have already been completed. “We have cleared the backlog owed to Benue State University (BSU) and some Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs). For those owed more than six or seven months, we are paying them off gradually,” he said.
The commissioner added that payments are being made in batches. “Sometimes, we select specific ministries for payment; at other times, we pay selected MDAs within a ministry. At no point have we claimed that the salary arrears have been fully cleared—it is an ongoing process,” he clarified.
Oglegba revealed that the College of Education is still owed about seven months’ salaries, which the government plans to settle. He described pension payments as a greater challenge.
“When we came in, we discovered that pensioners had not been captured in the state’s records for three years. We undertook a data capture exercise, which led to the pension arrears increasing from ₦400 million to ₦1 billion,” he said.
He noted that funds saved from a staff revalidation exercise were redirected towards pension payments. “That same exercise also helped us reduce the state’s monthly wage bill,” Oglegba added.
Providing further clarity, he said salary payments fall under three categories: core civil servants, MDAs, and support for BSU and the Benue State University Teaching Hospital (BSUTH). “We do not classify BSU and BSUTH staff as civil servants, but we support them monthly to meet their salary obligations. In addition to this, we continue to pay pensions,” he stated.
Oglegba also disclosed that the state government has implemented a new minimum wage. “For civil servants on Grade Levels 7 to 17, salaries have increased from ₦18,000 to ₦75,000. For those on Levels 1 to 6, the increase is from ₦30,000 to ₦75,000. That is a significant uplift,” he said.
He added that another round of staff revalidation would soon begin to identify ghost workers and further reduce government expenditure.
