Federal Government Borrowing To Pay N165bn Civil Service Salaries - Kemi Adeosun

The Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, Thursday, has stated that the ministry cannot afford to pay the N1.2 billion requested by its workers, she also confirmed that the Federal Government was already borrowing funds to be able to pay the N165 billion a month needed to cover civil service salaries.

Adeosun, in a statement in Abuja, after the meeting held with protesting workers of the Ministry of Finance on Wednesday, said she does not have any power to pay N1.2 billion, which was not in the budget of the Ministry.

According to her, all government departments currently face a very real squeeze in finances as the country grapples with the financial crisis inherited from previous administrations, adding also that the collective priority, therefore, must be on working together to get the whole economy back on its feet.

She stated that the most important thing for management and staff was to get a common understanding of what the government needed to do to regain financial stability.