18 Billion Naira Has Reached Ex-Nigeria Airways Workers After Twenty Years
Abuja · Saturday 12 September 2026
The federal government has paid 18 billion naira in severance benefits to former Nigeria Airways workers. Finance minister Taiwo Oyedele said on Friday that 2,100 beneficiaries across batches one to seven have been paid and that the remaining 600 in batches eight and nine are being finalised, out of 2,700 in total.
The airline was liquidated more than two decades ago.
Count the years, not the naira
Oyedele noted that many beneficiaries had grown old waiting and that some died, leaving families to pursue the entitlement on their behalf. That sentence is the actual content of this announcement. A severance payment is money someone was owed on the day they lost their job, not a benefit conferred later.
Why it took a presidential directive
| Stage | Typical delay |
|---|---|
| Liability acknowledged | Years of committees |
| Beneficiary list verified | Repeated from scratch each cycle |
| Money appropriated | Whenever a budget has room |
| Money actually released | When someone senior insists |
The last row is the one that moved this week.
A government that needs a presidential instruction to pay an acknowledged debt has a process problem, not a funding problem.
The precedent worth holding on to
There are other unpaid obligations of the same kind: pension arrears, gratuities for defunct parastatals, and judgment debts the state has stopped contesting. Each has a verified list and a number attached. What this week shows is that when the instruction comes from high enough, the payment runs. The rest of the queue is watching.
Reporting: Channels Television, Punch Newspapers, Nairametrics and Businessday.
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Whatever the news does this week, somebody at home still has to eat. The Send Home boxes land as a food shop, a care package or a learning kit. Naira pricing here.
