Zainab Ahmed
Zainab Ahmed, Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, has cleared the airs regarding the Federal Government’s plans to reduce the number of civil servants in the country.
On Thursday, the Minister, who reacted to the rumors on the Good Morning Nigeria programme on television, denied claims that the government was planning on sacking workers in order to save funds.
She said the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), had said repeatedly that no worker would be sacked. The minister, however, said the government would encourage people to leave government jobs by giving them incentives.
She added, “Mr President doesn’t want to disengage staff. That is what he has directed from the beginning of his administration. He also directed that we pay salaries. The Federal Government has never failed in paying salaries and he said we must always pay pensions.
The moment ZainabAhmed was asked how the government would cut personnel costs, Ahmed said they do hope that at the end of the exercise, some agencies will be merged and it will cut down operational costs.
Also, she said the Government will be able to come up with incentive packages to retrain people and redeploy them in some areas where they are useful.
For example, Ahmed noted that they still have a very high need for teachers that will retrain people and send them to teach but with incentive packages.