FG to reduce workforce, gives reason

The Federal Government is planning to downsize the civil service.

Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, explained that the downsizing is aimed at cutting the cost of the government’s recurrent expenditure yearly.

Ahmed disclosed that the Federal Government is working on an exit package for workers that would be affected.

In a statement, the minister said the government has set up a committee to review the collapse of agencies, using the Stephen Oronsaye report.

According to Ahmed, the committee would be led by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF, Boss Mustapha.

“There is a special committee led by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) that is working on the review of agencies with the view to collapsing them partly using the Oransanye report,” she said.

“At the end of it what we want to do is to reduce the size of government and also to reduce the size of personnel cost and part of it will be designing the exit packages that are realistic”.

She further explained that the planned collapse of agencies is because “we are revenue-challenged”.