The 49 Personnel of the National Economic Reconstruction Fund, NERFUND, have turned in their resignation letters to the Federal Government, in what some of the affected officials described as an unprovoked threat by the Ministry of Finance.
A cross-section of NERFUND staff, who confirmed the latest development on Tuesday night, explained that the 49 staff have no choice, but to tow the line of the Federal Ministry of Finance.
“Our Union Leaders met with Federal Ministry of Finance, on October 17. The meeting was chaired by the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Finance, Dr. Mahmoud Isa-Dutse, who doubles as Board Chairman of NERFUND. The meeting was also attended by our Sole Administrator/CEO, Dr. Ezekiel Oseni. The Permanent Secretary told our Leaders that it would be in the best interest of staff to resign and turn in their resignation letters, and be given acceptance letter by the government, instead of being given a letter of dismissal.
“The Permanent Secretary said a voluntary letter of resignation put staff in a better position to earn severance package, which they risk losing if government disengages them. By October 19, we started filing our voluntary retirement letters to take effect from October 31”, said one of the senior staff of the Fund.
Lamenting their ordeal, a junior cadre employee said that the Ministry backtracked on the initial mutual agreement it had with staff.
“The same Permanent Secretary told us last year, that government will transfer the staff to other Agencies, in the event that the option of closing down NERFUND is taken by the government. We are just 49 staff, because they have sacked 300 staff in the last two years”, he said.
Efforts to get a response from the Ministry of Finance were futile, as the Permanent Secretary, Isa-Dutse, neither picked his calls, nor responded to the SMS sent to his mobile line.
Post-Nigeria recalls that the Federal Government, earlier in September, began plans to shut down NERFUND, over non-performance and non-performing loans of over N17.5 billion.
About 1,143 projects in the small and medium enterprises sector were reportedly financed with the NERFUND loans, between 2010 and 2013.
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