The University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital has suspended the monthly salaries of one thousand workers following the discovery of serious irregularities in its payroll system. A comprehensive staff audit revealed that a significant number of names on the hospital’s payroll could not be matched to real, identifiable employees currently working at the institution.
The ghost worker problem in Nigerian institutions
Ghost workers — fictitious employees inserted into payroll systems to siphon salaries into private bank accounts — have been a persistent and costly problem in Nigerian public institutions for decades. In many cases, the schemes involve collusion between payroll staff, human resources personnel, and sometimes senior management. Biometric audits have become the most reliable detection tool.
Scale of the financial loss
Calculations based on average public-sector salary scales suggest the scheme could have been draining between N50 million and N200 million from the hospital’s resources each month — money that should have been funding patient care, equipment maintenance, and legitimate staff welfare. The investigation will need to determine how long the scheme has been operating and who has been collecting the salaries.
Chukwu Vincent Ogbonnia is the founder and lead editor of Viralarena, a Nigerian digital media platform covering breaking news, music, and sport. Based in Abuja, Vincent is a content creator passionate about telling Nigerian stories with speed, accuracy, and cultural authenticity.
Chukwu Vincent Ogbonnia is the founder and lead editor of Viralarena, a Nigerian digital media platform covering breaking news, music, and sport. Based in Abuja, Vincent is a content creator passionate about telling Nigerian stories with speed, accuracy, and cultural authenticity.
