FG Begins Payment of N18bn Severance Benefits to 2,700 Ex-Nigeria Airways Workers

The Federal Government has commenced the payment of N18 billion in outstanding severance benefits to 2,700 former employees of the defunct Nigeria Airways, more than two decades after the national carrier was liquidated.

The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Taiwo Oyedele, disclosed this on Friday during a press briefing at the Federal Ministry of Finance in Abuja.

Oyedele said 2,100 former workers covered under batches one to seven had already received their payments, while a further 600 beneficiaries in batches eight and nine had been cleared for payment.

“Altogether, this represents N18bn in benefits for 2,700 former workers,” the minister said.

The development marks a major step towards resolving a long-standing obligation owed to former employees of Nigeria Airways, which was liquidated in 2003 after years of financial difficulties.

According to Oyedele, many of the former workers had spent more than 20 years waiting for their entitlements, with some growing old and others dying before the government could settle the obligations.

“For more than two decades, following the liquidation of Nigeria Airways, many former employees have waited for their outstanding severance benefits. Some have grown old waiting. Some have sadly passed away, leaving their families to pursue what was legitimately due to them,” he said.

He explained that the payment was being implemented following a directive from President Bola Tinubu to resolve the inherited obligation.

The minister acknowledged that the settlement could not make up for the prolonged delay but said the government had decided to confront the outstanding liabilities rather than allow them to continue accumulating.

“We recognise that no payment today can fully compensate for more than two decades of waiting, but it is important that government confronts these long-standing obligations rather than allowing them to remain unresolved for another generation,” Oyedele said.

He added that the exercise was part of the Federal Government’s broader effort to clear verified inherited obligations, including outstanding liabilities owed to pensioners and indigenous contractors.

Verification of Beneficiaries

Oyedele said extensive verification had been carried out before payments were approved, including biometric capture and validation of beneficiaries’ personal and banking information.

He explained that the verification process was necessary to eliminate fraudulent claims and ensure that government funds were paid only to legitimate beneficiaries.

According to him, further verification would be undertaken in cases involving outdated personal information, incorrect bank details and beneficiaries who had died before receiving their entitlements.

For deceased former workers, he said payments would be made to their documented next of kin or estates after the necessary legal procedures had been completed.

The minister also clarified that the benefits applied across different categories of former Nigeria Airways employees and were not restricted to senior workers.

On whether the severance payments had been adjusted to reflect inflation over the more than two-decade period, Oyedele said the government was settling the obligations based on the amounts officially documented and verified.

He acknowledged that inflation had significantly eroded the value of the money over the years but said there was no provision for inflationary adjustment in the settlement.

Oyedele further explained that the payments were being made in batches to ensure that beneficiaries whose claims had been fully verified did not continue waiting while unresolved cases underwent additional validation.

FG Pays Over 12,000 Indigenous Contractors

The minister also disclosed that the Federal Government had paid outstanding obligations to more than 12,000 indigenous contractors as part of efforts to clear accumulated government debts.

He said the government initially prioritised contractors owed N50 million or less, before extending the payment process to verified claims of up to N100 million.

Larger claims running into billions of naira, he explained, could be handled separately through negotiations and instruments such as promissory notes.

According to Oyedele, the strategy was designed to prioritise smaller businesses that were more dependent on government payments to meet immediate obligations such as salaries and operating expenses.

He, however, warned contractors against paying commissions or inducements to government officials to facilitate the settlement of verified claims, describing such demands as illegal.

Oyedele said the government was also taking steps to prevent a recurrence of the massive accumulation of unpaid obligations by ensuring that budgets were more realistic and that capital expenditure commitments were backed by identifiable sources of funding.

“We will do our best to ensure that the accumulated obligations of the past do not repeat themselves,” he said.

The minister apologised to the former Nigeria Airways workers for the prolonged delay in receiving their entitlements, stressing that the payments were not favours from the government but legitimate benefits owed to them.