The Federal Government has put in place measures to reduce its workforce in order to grapple with its present dwindling revenue profile and provide efficient infrastructure to jump-start the economy on a strong footing.

Already, the government is designing what it calls an exit package for the workers that will be affected by the impending purge.

Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Shamsuna Ahmed, who disclosed this at the public presentation and breakdown of the highlights of the 2022 Appropriation Act, on Wednesday, in Abuja noted that reducing the size of government has become imperative given the huge amount the government spends on recurrent expenditure annually.

This implies that some staff of the Federal Government will lose their jobs when government merges their agencies with others.

However, the government’s mode of reducing the workforce, she pointed out will not entirely be in line with the Stephen Oronsaye report but based on a committee recommendation.

According to the Finance Minister, the government is already working on an “exit package” to be paid to those that will be affected.

Mrs Ahmed said: “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.

“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 said.

While advancing the reason for the planned merger of agencies, the finance minister said “We are revenue challenged; so everything we do we can’t put an exit package if you are not willing to cash it immediately. So, when you are asking people to exit by choice you must be able to give them that package as they are exiting.”

Mrs Ahmed averred that “there are so many things that are happening; these are not easy decisions to make because they affect people and families. So, you have to make sure that whatever we commit to we are actually going to deliver on it.”

(Nigerian Tribune)