Kaduna state Governor Malam Nasir El-Rufai announced plan to downsize the state’s workforce.
This is coming after 4,000 workers across the 23 local government areas of the state received their disengagement letters from service.
The governor further added that he “was elected to promote equality of opportunity, to build and run schools and hospitals, upgrade infrastructure and make the state more secure and attractive to the private sector for jobs and investments.
El-Rufai, in a statement signed by his Special Adviser on Media and Communication, Mr Muyiwa Adekeye, said its public finances have been severely stretched by the high wage bills at a time when revenues from the Federation Account Allocations Committee (FAAC) have not increased.
“In November 2020, KDSG had only N162.9m left after paying salaries after receiving N4.83bn from FAAC and paid N4.66bn as wages.
“In the last six months, personnel costs have accounted for between 84.97% and 96.63% of FAAC transfers received by the Kaduna State Government. In March 2021, Kaduna State had only N321m left after settling personnel costs.
“That month, the state got N4.819bn from FAAC and paid out N4.498bn, representing 93% of the money received.
“This does not include standing orders for overheads, funding security operations, running costs of schools and hospitals, and other overhead costs that the state has to bear for the machinery of government to run, for which the state government taps into IGR earnings,” he said.
He said the government “was elected to develop the state, not just to pay the salaries of public servants. It was elected to promote equality of opportunity, to build and run schools and hospitals, upgrade infrastructure and make the state more secure and attractive to the private sector for jobs and investments.”
Adekeye also recalled that “in September 2019, Kaduna State Government became the first government in the country to pay the new minimum wage and consequential adjustments. The state government followed this up by increasing the minimum pension of persons on the defined benefits scheme to N30, 000 monthly.”