By Gabriella Ogbu<\/p>\n
Federal civil servants are enduring a subdued Christmas due to delayed December 2024 salary payments.
\nFrustration mounts as many workers struggle financially following similar delays in November.
\nMost workers received their November salaries only in mid-December, leaving many in debt as holiday preparations began.
\nSources attribute the delays to issues at the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation and challenges with a new payment platform.
\nAt the Federal Secretariat on Tuesday, workers expressed their discontent.
\nA civil servant, speaking anonymously, said, “I\u2019m not traveling for the holidays because I don\u2019t have the money. Our November salaries were late, and we\u2019re facing the same issue in December.”
\nAnother worker lamented the increased cost of living, adding, “Even basic necessities like clothes and food for my children are now difficult to afford without timely salaries.”
\nAn Assistant Director outside Abuja described the situation as “too much,” saying, “We can\u2019t even afford basic items like chicken for Christmas.
\nThe government must address this.”
\nThe Federal Government acknowledged the delays, citing budgetary shortfalls and the impact of the new minimum wage.
\nBawa Mokwa, Director of Press and Public Relations at the Accountant-General\u2019s Office, assured that payments began on Monday, though disbursement depends on individual banks.
\nBudget challenges have compounded the problem. In 2024, wage-related allocations for MDAs were slashed by 45%, affecting salary payments.
\nHowever, the proposed 2025 budget earmarks \u20a67.54 trillion for salaries\u2014a significant increase from 2024.
\nDespite this, rising debt servicing costs, projected at \u20a616.33 trillion in 2025, continue to outpace wage allocations, exacerbating financial struggles for civil servants nationwide.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Gabriella Ogbu Federal civil servants are enduring a subdued Christmas due to delayed December 2024 salary payments. Frustration mounts as many workers struggle financially following similar delays in November. Most workers received their November salaries only in mid-December, leaving many in debt as holiday preparations began. Sources attribute the delays to issues at the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":58460,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-58459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58459"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58459\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58461,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58459\/revisions\/58461"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}