For thousands of former Nigeria Airways workers, the wait that stretched across more than two decades is finally beginning to end.
The Federal Government has released about N18 billion in outstanding benefits to 2,100 former employees of the defunct national carrier, while payments for another 600 beneficiaries are being finalised.
The development, announced by Finance Minister and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Taiwo Oyedele, in Abuja on Friday, represents the latest attempt to settle a financial obligation that has remained unresolved since the airline ceased operations.
Rather than simply being another government payment, the settlement carries a deeply personal significance for former workers who spent their working years serving Nigeria’s aviation sector and subsequently waited for years to receive benefits they were entitled to.
Oyedele said the process followed a directive from President Bola Tinubu to resolve the long-running claims.
The minister explained that the government’s exercise covers 2,700 former Nigeria Airways workers divided into nine categories. Workers in categories one to seven have already received their payments, while officials are working to complete disbursements for those in categories eight and nine.
Behind the figures is a story of prolonged uncertainty: workers who had expected their entitlements after leaving service instead found themselves waiting through successive administrations for the matter to be resolved.
Oyedele said the government therefore approached the exercise not merely as the settlement of an old debt, but as an effort to restore the dignity of people who had devoted their productive years to public service.
To prevent another round of disputes over who should be paid, the Federal Government carried out a verification exercise to establish genuine beneficiaries before releasing the funds.
The exercise is not completely over. According to the minister, a further mop-up process will be conducted for eligible former workers whose names were not captured during the initial exercise or whose documentation still requires verification.
The government’s position is that the payments form part of a wider fiscal strategy aimed at meeting legitimate obligations while maintaining tighter control over public finances.
For the former Nigeria Airways employees, however, the significance goes beyond fiscal policy.
After years of waiting, the government’s release of N18 billion to 2,100 beneficiaries, with 600 more still being processed, offers a measure of closure to a chapter that has remained open for more than 20 years.
And for those still waiting, the completion of the remaining payments may be the final step in turning a decades-old promise into money actually received.
