FG PAYS N20Bn COVID-19 ALLOWANCE TO ALL HEALTH WORKERS IN THE COUNTRY
The Federal Government has paid N20bn as COVID-19 inducement allowance to all doctors and health workers in the country.
This was disclosed by Dr. Olorunnimbe Mamora, the Minister of State for Health.
He made this known on Wednesday, September 9th, 2020, while featuring on Channels Television programme, Sunrise Daily.
Recall that Eons Intelligence reported that the National Association of Resident Doctors embarked on a nationwide strike action over the Government's inability to meet their demands including insurance package, outstanding COVID-19 inducement allowance, and payment of medical residency funding.
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"The Federal Government has not invited us to a meeting after we notified them that we will be proceeding on strike. We have directed all our members across the country both federal and state institutions to recommence the strike we suspended on June 22, 2020,” the Nigeria Association of Resident Doctors had said at the commencement of the indefinite strike on Monday.
But speaking on Wednesday morning, Mamora said it is regrettable that the kind of situation is happening at this point in time when the nation is grappling with a pandemic.
He said N5,000 hazard allowance for doctors and health workers in the country which has been in existence for about 30 years was suspended for the period of the pandemic.
He said, “We have been able to pay the COVID-19 inducement allowance because we had to suspend the hazard allowance for this period so that we can go into renegotiation after.
“We are now paying starting from 50 per cent of the basic of the workers depending on where the point of operation is. We were able to pay April, May full, June, part of it has been paid but not fully paid and it is because of the economic situation and these funds have to be sourced for one way or the other.
“We’ve been able to disburse close to N20bn and I repeat close to 20bn. So, to now say nothing has been done, that is not true.”
The Minister added that the medical residency training funding which is one of the agitations of the doctors has been captured in the revised 2020 Budget but Government bureaucracies and processes were delaying its implementation and payment.
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