The Nigerian government has announced it is going to clear unpaid salaries of 109 Nigerian missions abroad with at least 450 workers.
Revealing when it plans to clear the unpaid salaries of workers in those embassies, FG said this would happen as soon as President Bola Ahmed Tinubu signed the 2025 appropriation act already passed by the National Assembly.
The acting spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Kimiebi Ebienfa, disclosed this in his reaction to financial constraints suffered by Nigerian workers across embassies.
This comes as a report indicated that officials under the Foreign Affairs Ministry are in financial distress and cannot pay rent and children’s school fees or meet other family and social obligations.
Reacting, Ebienfa said, “The ministry is aware of the difficulties faced by the missions abroad, and the leadership is working seriously to address the situation.
“With the recent passage of the 2025 Appropriation Act by the National Assembly, there is strong optimism that the bill will be signed into law soonest by Mr. President and that will positively impact the finances of the ministry and missions abroad.”
Available data of the ministry’s recurrent expenditures indicate that the ministry spent N251.71 billion on salaries in four years.
In 2025 budget, the foreign affairs ministry proposed N353.77 billion, with N214.64 billion earmarked for personnel costs, N72.24 billion for overheads for capital expenditure.
This comes as the federal government equally proposed N53 billion to renovate 103 foreign missions this year.
Recall that in September 2023, President Bola Tinubu reassessed Nigeria’s foreign policy and initiated a recall of 83 ambassadors.
Since the emergence of Tinubu’s administration, the process of appointing new envoys has, however, faced delays due to financial shortfalls.
In May 2023, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yusuf Tuggar, said, “There is no point sending out ambassadors if you do not have the funds for them to even travel to their designated country and to run the missions effectively; one needs funding.”.
In the past months, Nigeria has witnessed several diplomatic rows; for instance, recently, Canadian embassies denied Nigerian Chief of Defence Staff, General Christopher Musa, and other top military officials visas.
Reacting, the National Security Adviser, NSA, Nuhu Ribadu, has berated the Canadian embassy.
