The Kwara State Government has attributed the delay in the payment of some civil servants and pensioners’ salaries to the ongoing Bank Verification Number (BVN) exercise in the state.

The state also emphasized that all cleared workers and pensioners in the state will continue to receive their entitlements.

In a statement issued in Ilorin, the state capital, on behalf of the Kwara State Personnel Database Development Committee by Dr. Muyideen Akorede, the state government said 15 percent of the 83,000 workers and pensioners that are yet to be BVN verified had their entitlements warehoused pending clearance.
The statement clarified that while the state government was one of the least affected by the huge drop in federal allocation and has been paying salaries regularly, certain categories of workers and pensioners who did not supply their details on time are temporarily affected.

The state government said having gone through physical verification, workers and pensioners have to be subjected to BVN verification at the Nigerian Interbank Settle System(NIBSS) which is also verifying workers from other states and the Federal Government.

Continuing, the state government said the salaries and pensions of the affected individuals have been warehoused and will be paid to those verified as soon as the exercise is completed.

While urging the affected workers to exercise patience, the government stressed that the verification was necessary to ensure only authentic workers and pensioners who have worked for their wages are paid in the state.

The state government is optimistic that the expected savings from the exercise will enhance its efforts to end the salary crises in the state.
On the issue of LG workers, the state government said that cleared workers were paid based on available resources from federation allocation and internal revenue.

It added that the recent decision to prioritize salaries of basic education teachers will bring added relief to the workers.