Members of the Oyo State team that worked for the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) on the post-covid surveillance project organised in partnership with the African Field Epidemiology Network (AFENET) between December 2023 and April 2024 are lamenting the non-payment of part of their stipends.

FIJ learned that the project was embarked upon to survey the prevalence of COVID-19, a global pandemic that was endemic in Nigeria between 2020 and 2021.

The Oyo State team consisted of 10 teams with six members each, making a total of 60 members. The members of the Oyo State team were trained between December 18 and December 20, 2023, and the survey commenced on December 21.

Olawale (not real name), who was a member of the team, told FIJ that the NCDC failed to pay them their stipends as stipulated in the contract they had signed.

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According to the copy of the signed contract seen by FIJ, each member of the team was entitled to a daily stipend of N7,500.

“Each team had a supervisor who was entitled to N8,500, while the rest of us were entitled to N7,500 daily. We worked Monday to Saturday between December 21, 2023, and April 30, 2024. We were expected to test a minimum of 100 people each day. They said they would pay us every month. It was supposed to be an eight-month project but was halted in April,” Olawale told FIJ.

The team worked for 113 days between December 21 and April 30. For work done in December, January, February, March and April, their remunerations were meant to be N67,500, N202,500, N187,500, N195,500 and N195,500, respectively.

However, this is far from the amounts they have received from the NCDC.

In January, members of the team were paid N180,000 instead of N202,500.

In mid-February, members of the team were paid N90,000 again. They expected payments by the month’s end, but nothing came. If the NCDC and AFENET had paid according to the provisions of the contract, their remuneration for that month ought to have been N187,500.

Again, in mid-March, they were paid N90,000.

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That was the last time they ever received payments.

For the entire 113 days worked, they were supposed to earn the sum of N847,500 but were only paid N360,000. By implication, members of the team are being owed no less than N487,500 each.

Olawale also told FIJ that they explained their displeasure with the amount they were paid but the facilitators of the project blamed it on the change of leadership in the NCDC.

In February, a new director-general was appointed to hold the reins of the affairs of the NCDC, and according to the explanations given to the team by the facilitators, this was the reason for their delayed payments and unpaid balance.

“They told us that they changed some roles in NCDC and that was the reason our balance was being delayed. That should not affect us. They ought to have resolved the issue by now. The change in administration has been over 4 months now, and this happened about two months before the end of the programme,” said Olawale.

“How long does it take a DG to understand the ongoing projects? During the Zoom meeting we had with them on May 1, it was communicated that the DG understood the project and was ready to sign our payroll.”

He is bothered that the money will have lost its value when it eventually gets paid.

“The naira is losing its value every day. There is no assurance that the money will not have lost its value when they eventually pay it. If they pay a balance of N300,000, it could be like N50,000 by then,” he said.

Another member of the team shares Olawale’s worries.

“I am a postgraduate student. The country is very tough as we speak. Even the value of the money is becoming worthless. They must do something about it before the value reduces to zero and our hopes get dashed. This is why we are speaking out,” he said.

FIJ sent text messages to Dr. Lois and Abiola Oshuniyi, two of the project’s facilitators, but they didn’t respond. They had failed to respond to calls.

When FIJ contacted AFENET via the telephone number provided on their website, a staff member repeated the same thing Olawale said – the change of NCDC’s DG was the reason for the delay in the payment of their balance.

“I am aware of this, but I can’t speak on behalf of the government. It was a government project, and we (AFENET) are partners in the project. There was a change in leadership at NCDC, which affected the payment. You can’t blame the man. He had no idea how it was done. We are waiting for them to send us money to make payment,” said the AFENET staff member.

FIJ also emailed NCDC, but they did not respond.