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FG to commence implementation of increased hazard allowance by January 2022 –NARD

The National Association of Resident Doctors says the Federal Government will begin the implementation of the increased hazard allowance by January 2022.

Speaking with Journalists, President of the association, Dr. Dare Ishaya said the allowance will be increased to a percentage of the basic salary depending on the grade level and basic salary of each doctor.

“We have finalised discussions on the hazard allowance with the Federal Government. We will come up with a circular and it will be implemented in January 2022. “We were made to understand that it is captured in the 2022 budget.

So, implementation will start in January 2022. We have finalised the discussion that it will be increased to a percentage of the basic salary depending on the grade level and basic salary that’s one is earning.”

He, however, urged the government to ensure the implementation of the agreement reached. “We have finished discussion but the problem will be the implementation.

Usually, the problem is the implementation by the government,” he said.

Speaking further, he said resident doctors in Abia, Imo, Ekiti, and Ondo states who are being owed salary arrears are yet to be paid despite an agreement reached with the Nigeria Governors’ Forum.

“We had agreements with the Nigeria Governors’ Forum when they had a meeting a few weeks ago, we agreed on the modalities to offset those arrears but up till now, no state government has called us.

“The secretariat of the NGF has not invited us for any meeting. They are supposed to anchor the discussion with the various state governors but we haven’t heard from them.

“We will reach out to them to remind them of our agreement,” Ishaya said.

He said the doctors are going through serious psychological stress, noting that they are unable to pay their rents or their children’s school fees.

“The conditions of these doctors can only be imagined because the economy of the country is not blossoming that one can look for alternative sources of income.

“So, they have been forced to be in a very precarious situation, not by their own making but because they have not been paid.

“They cannot pay their house rents, even to get money to go to work. Just imagine the psychology of such a doctor coming to attend to a patient, and thinking of how his family will be fed and how his children will go to school, and thinking of how to come back to work. Yet, he is attending to patients,” he said.

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