The minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Shamsuna Ahmed has announced that the president has ordered an embargo on recruitments into the federal civil service.

Speaking with journalists shortly after the federal executive meeting on Thursday, she added that workers would not be sacked but replacement and recruitment have been put on hold for now.

Her words:

“The president has directed that salaries and pensions must be paid unfailingly. So, we are not looking at downsizing in anyway. We are maintaining our workforce as it is. But we are just stopping the increase in the size of the nominal roll.”