Nigeria's finance
ministry said Sunday that it had saved millions of dollars for the
cash-strapped government by removing more than 20,000 "ghost workers"
from the state payroll.
The eliminated
ghost workers represented just a "percentage" of
"non-existent" staff who had been receiving monthly wages,
highlighting the brazen corruption in Africa's biggest economy.
"The salary
bill for February 2016 has reduced by 2.293 billion naira ($11.53
million)," finance ministry advisor Festus Akanbi said in a statement.
Akanbi said that
stricter payroll regulation would boost the budget at a time when Nigeria's
state coffers are depleted as a result of the collapse in global oil prices.
Trimming personnel
costs "is key to funding the deficit in the 2016 budget, as savings made
will ultimately reduce the amount to be borrowed," Akanbi said.
Nigerian President
Muhammadu Buhari announced a record budget in December promising to stimulate
growth and build infrastructure in the oil-rich but import-dependant nation.
He has
vowed to infuse the budget with money recovered in his quest to stamp out
endemic corruption in Nigeria.