OAGF clears air on ‘shortfall’ in federal workers’ salaries, gives update on arrears payment

The Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation (OAGF) has clarified that federal workers’ salaries for January and February were not reduced, but rather reflected their standard earnings after arrears payments concluded in 2024.

This clarification was made in a statement by Bawa Mokwa, Director of Press and Public Relations, on Friday in Abuja.

Mokwa explained that the payments made from October to December 2024 included various arrears, which temporarily boosted workers’ salaries. With those arrears now settled, workers have returned to receiving their regular salaries.

He emphasized the need to clear up the misconception surrounding salary discrepancies to ease workers’ concerns.

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According to Mokwa, “Various salary arrears have been paid in the last quarter of 2024, namely, minimum wage arrears, 25 per cent/35 per cent increase in salary arrears, and wage award arrears.

“All these arrears were paid from the month of October 2024 to December 2024. This made salaries to increase abnormally in the last quarter of 2024.

“Payment of normal salaries after exhausting the various arrears began in January 2025, which made some workers think that they were shortchanged, when in actual sense, it was their real salaries,” he said.

Mokwa added that these standard salaries would continue until the Federal Government decides to review them.

He also addressed incidents of overpayment in December 2024, which he attributed to a system error.

“The error has been corrected and deductions in respect of the overpayments from the salaries of affected workers is on-going and shall continue until such overpayments were fully recovered,” he said.

Regarding the payment of promotion arrears, Mokwa noted that the process is managed by a standing committee within the Budget Office of the Federation (BOF).

He explained that the BOF is responsible for compiling and verifying salary and promotion arrears from various Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) before forwarding them to the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS) for disbursement.

Mokwa stated that IPPIS had already completed payments for batches 1 to 6 and was awaiting further batches from the BOF for processing.

He reaffirmed the OAGF’s commitment to efficiently managing IPPIS, highlighting its importance to the welfare of federal workers.
Mokwa encouraged workers experiencing salary issues to use formal channels to resolve their concerns promptly.