Nigeria’s Finance Ministry has launched an investigation into the alleged delay in paying some civil servants their salaries. Paul C Nwabuikwu, Special Adviser to the Coordinating Minister of the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, disclosed this in a statement issued this evening in Abuja, the Nigerian capital.

“It has come to our attention that an association of senior civil servants has issued a statement protesting the non-payment of their December 2013 salaries as well as some emoluments. We are yet to see the statement but the issue of prompt salary payment is one that the Federal Ministry of Finance has prioritised for several months now,” the ministry said in the statement.

Continuing, it said: “The Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance has made it absolutely clear that prompt salary payment cannot be compromised for any reason and this has been communicated to all relevant agencies. And we have received feedback from many civil servants who expressed their happiness about the early payment of salaries.

“While we investigate this complaint which is yet to be formally communicated, the initial feedback from some senior servants consulted is that government is not owing them any entitlements. So it is clear this is not a generalized problem.

“We are aware of a few delays caused by the failure of individual civil servants and their MDAs to update their account numbers to meet the requirements of the CBN approved 10 digit NUBAN account numbers and communicate same to the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation. But this involves pockets of civil servants, certainly not the entire senior civil servants. Any legitimate inconveniences are regretted.”

•Photo shows Finance Minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.