The Federal Government has begun disbursing the long-awaited N35,000 wage award arrears to civil servants across the federation. This update was provided on Monday via a release from the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation (OAGF), which noted that several employees had already received payment alerts, while others are to get theirs shortly.
According to Bawa Mokwa, Director of Press and Public Relations at the OAGF, the government is fully committed to settling all outstanding amounts.
“The Federal Government has commenced payment of the N35,000 wage award arrears to federal government workers,” the statement read.
The OAGF also addressed circulating misinformation in certain online publications, clarifying that the Accountant-General of the Federation, Mr. Babatunde Ogunjimi, never made claims suggesting the wage award was omitted from the 2025 budget.
“The Accountant-General of the Federation never said the N35,000 wage award was excluded from the 2025 Budget as reported by some online media,” the release emphasized.
Furthermore, it was clarified that Ogunjimi has not given any public statement concerning the wage award. The office assured public servants that the outstanding arrears will be fully paid, reinforcing the government’s stance on honoring its agreements.
“The Accountant-General of the Federation never said the N35,000 wage award was excluded from the 2025 Budget as reported by some online media,” the statement noted.
This wage award formed part of a broader palliative deal agreed upon in 2023 after the removal of the fuel subsidy. The payments are structured to be released in N35,000 increments across a five-month period.
“The payments would be done in instalments of N35,000 for five months.”
As previously covered by The PUNCH, the government had signaled intentions to kick-start the settlement of the backlog of these payments to federal civil servants. The OAGF had earlier mentioned that while April 2025 salaries would be processed independently, the first phase of the wage award disbursement would commence immediately afterward.
Back in January, authorities reaffirmed their pledge to clear the owed N35,000 wage arrears, and confirmed that the wage award payments had already resumed.
