Few hours into the indefinite strike declared by the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) the Federal Government has approved the sum of 11.995 billion naira being processed for release within 72 hours to pay some arrears including accoutrement allowance.
The Deputy Director, Information and Public Relations, Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, Alaba Balogun disclosed this in a statement on Saturday.
Balogun said the decision was reached during a high-level meeting led by Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare, Dr. Iziaq Salako between the top management of the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare and the leadership of the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD), following the association’s recent agitations over welfare and professional concerns.
“In collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare commenced the payment of seven months’ arrears of the 25%/35% upward review of CONMESS and CONHESS to all categories of health workers with 10 billion naira paid in August 2025.
“Following the approval of President Bola Tinubu for these arrears owed to health workers including members of NARD to be paid expeditiously, as of Thursday 30th October, another sum of 21.3 billion naira has been moved to the IPPIS account and payment has commenced.
“In addition,the sum of 11.995 billion naira is being processed for release within 72 hours to pay other arrears including accoutrement allowance. All these payments are being enjoyed by members of NARD inaccordance with the salary structure in the health sector”, he said.
In addition, the Federal Government has granted special waivers to enable the massive recruitment of healthcare professionals across Federal Tertiary Institutions to address the strain caused by brain drain and prolonged working hours.
According to Balogun, in 2024, over 20,000 health workers, including doctors, nurses, and allied professionals wereemployed across 58 Federal Health Institutions, under the Renewed Hope Health Agenda’scommitment to strengthening human resources for health.
“The recruitment for 2025 is currentlyongoing with over 15,000 health workers already approved to be employed. Additionally, the Federal Government has released ₦10.6 billion as at September 2025 as full payment for the 2025 Medical Residency Training Fund (MRTF) paid exclusively to residentdoctors nationwide”.
Furthermore, the Ministry confirmed that collective bargaining discussions were ongoing the Nigerian MedicalAssociation (NMA), where NARD is an affiliate, the Joint Health Sector Unions (JOHESU), and the National Association of Nigerian Nurses and Midwives (NANM).
“To deepen dialogue and proffer solutions to controversial issues that arose in the course of the CBA, the Ministry has engaged a professional negotiator who is a Professor of Industrial Relations, Prof. Dafe Otobo, to facilitate further constructive engagements between governmentand union leaders with the active involvement of the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment.
“The negotiator has since met with all the unions individually, a joint meeting of theunions with the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare with the negotiator has also takenplace as of Thursday 24th October 2025. All these is being done to facilitate decisions at the CBAand ensure a comprehensive, universally discussed and agreed solutions to the agitations ofhealth workers which has been missing in recent past negotiations”, the statement said.
“Discussions are progressing on all the points raised by the health unions including NARD, anaffiliate of NMA. Such issues includes specialist and other allowances, salary relativity, appointedof consultant cadre in our hospitals and other welfare-related issues. The Ministry of Labour andProductivity has expressed its readiness to conclude the collective bargaining process onceconsensus is reached,” the statement noted.
