The Minister of State for Health, Olorunnumbe Mamora, has said that the Federal Government has paid up to N20bn as COVID-19 allowance to doctors and health workers in the country.
Speaking during an interview on Channels TV, Mamora said it would be unfair if the doctors claim they haven’t received anything as COVID-19 allowance.
According to him, the Federal government has so far disbursed N20 billion as COVID-19 allowance.
“We have been able to pay the coronavirus inducement allowance because we had to suspend the hazard allowance for this period so that we can go into renegotiation after.
“We are now paying, starting from 50 per cent of the basic of the workers depending on where the point of operation is.
“We were able to pay April, May full, June, part of it has been paid but not fully paid and it’s because of the economic situation and these funds have to be sourced for one way or the other.
“We have also been able to disbursed close to N20bn and I repeat close to 20bn.
“So, to now say nothing has been done, that is not true.” he said.
Mamora further stated that every worker in the Federal Civil Service is entitled to the Group Life Insurance Scheme which is domiciled in the office of the head of Civil Service of the Federation.
He also said that the Ministry of Health only supervises the processes involved in the payments.
“When a health worker dies, and he was an employee of the Federal Government, the information comes to us, goes to our Human Resources Directorate and it is processed.
“Ours is to do a follow-up, but the office of the head of Civil Service will get these things done because they are the ones that interface with insurance companies because it is a group of insurance companies that manage this process.
“But what we have discovered is that some of the time, the appropriate information is not made available.
“For example, we have asked the various federal tertiary hospitals to come up with their nominal role, so we know who is on that list and stands to benefit in the event that death, unfortunately, happens.
“We made that clear and the doctors said they now understand better,” he added.
