N-Power: No need to panic over Stipend

The beneficiaries of the Federal Government N-power Program which has been helping hundreds of thousands of Nigerian citizens have taken to their social media to array fears on wether payment of their stipends would be affected by the  fall in crude oil price to $29 per barrel.

This is coming as the Federal Government of Nigeria has planned slashing the 2020 budget to cushion the effect of the dwindling economy caused by the Pandamic Coronavirus Infection. They have also within the week reduced the fuel pump price to N125 against the previous N145 per litre.

The Volunteers need not Panic

The Minster of Finance, Budget and Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, has disclosed on Wednesday during a Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting, that the Federal Government has placed embargo on recruitment into its Civil Services.

She noted that the Federal Government would continue to pay workers salaries and does not have intention of sacking workers or recruiting new ones.

"On recruitment, there is already an instruction to stop recruitment. What the agencies have been doing is replacement but even that is being suspended. When things improve, we will go back to the issue of recruitment. But for now, our wage bill is already very high."

 “The president has directed that salaries and pensions must be paid unfailingly. So, we are not looking at downsizing in anyway. We are maintaining our workforce as it is. But we are just stopping the increase in the size of the nominal roll,” the minister said.

Mrs Ahmed also emphasised on the measures the Federal Government has taken to cushion the effect of the Coronavirus Pandemic on the economy which includes review of the modalities for the implementation of the Social Investment Program (SIP), non-essential tax waivers to realise more revenue, adjustment of Customs revenue, increasing crude oil production to minimum of 2.18million barrels, introduction of PMS modulation mechanism and cutting down expenditure to reflect present realities.