By Flora Iweanya
“I left Nigeria in 2022 and haven’t resumed work, yet I’m still receiving salary every month from the government agency I was working with,” said a former civil servant, now residing in Europe who wants to remain anonymous. “It’s like I never left. The system doesn’t care if you’re working or not as long as your name is on the list, the money keeps coming.”
The former government worker described her departure as abrupt, following her visa approval, and expected that the salary payments would stop once she failed to report to duty.
“I didn’t submit a resignation letter because I wasn’t sure if I’d return. I assumed, at the very least, they’dnotice my absence. But months passed, and the payments didn’t stop. I even tried to inform a colleague, and he laughed, saying ‘Why stop it? Just keep quiet and enjoy the free ride.’”
She said her experience opened her eyes to the scale of rot in the system.
“I know at least four other people in the same boat, some in the UK, others in Canada still getting paid.” The system is broken. Nobody is checking. There’sno exit verification. No biometric attendance. Nothing. It’s all paper files and signatures that can be forged or ignored,” she added.
“I’m talking to you because you’re my friend and I feel guilty. That money could pay the salary of someone who actually wants to work but is unemployed. It’s not fair to Nigerians.”
Nigeria’s ghost name crisis is on a large scale
The ghost worker malady has been a dilemma across all tiers of government in Nigeria. As a result, the government has lost billions of Naira on “non-existent” employees to payroll fraud.
This form of corruption has contributed significantly to Nigeria ranking 154 out of 180 countries that were assessed in the 2021 global corruption perceptionindex.
A 2016 Federal Government audit discovered over 50,000 ghost workers, leading to savings of approximately N200 billion annually. Similar discoveries have been made in states like Kaduna, where over 24,000 ghost workers were identified in 2017. In Kogi, around 8,000 phantom employees were uncovered in 2018. In 2021, Borno found 22,500 ghost workers, which cost it N420 million a month. This January, Anambra said it discovered 210 ghost workers on its payroll and in 2021 Ondo state lost over 500 million naira to ghost workers.
These discoveries point to the wider entrenched culture of sleaze and impunity within the public service. Civil servants orchestrate schemes to collect multiple salaries through proxies, retainretired and deceased workers, insert fake names in the payroll, and find ways to pocket such payments. Retirees’ pensions are routinely diverted and stolen.
Estimates suggest Nigeria has lost over ₦1.5 trillion between 2015 and 2025 due to payroll fraud and ghost workers. That amount could build thousands of kilometers of roads, fund universal basic healthcare, or boost tertiary education nationwide.
The problem is well-known. The Federal Government introduced the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System to streamline the salary payment process and eliminate corruption amid strong resistance by some ministries, departments, and agencies.
An audit by the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation of IPPIS found that the system had been compromised. The Europe-based ghost worker’s case offers proof.
Accountant General: “IPPIS Alone Cannot Solve the Problem”
The Accountant General of the Federation, Dr. Oluwatoyin Madein, in a recent press release admitted that while IPPIS has had successes, its integrity remains questionable without broader integration.
“We have removed over 70,000 ghost workers through the use of IPPIS,” she noted. “But loopholes still exist due to the manual entry processes and lack of real-time verification systems. Fraudulent actors find ways to circumvent the system.”
“It’s not about deploying a digital system alone,” she continued. “What matters is whether it’s backed by a secure, central identity verification platform something IPPIS currently lacks.”
She disclosed that the Federal Government has launched a comprehensive personnel audit aimed at exposing and eliminating ‘ghost workers.’
“The move also includes civil servants who have relocated abroad but continue to receive salaries from the national payroll. The audit will involve submission of both digital and authenticated physical records by May 2, 2025,” Madein, stated in the release.
The prevalence of ghost workers in Nigeria’s public sector is a significant challenge, resulting in substantial financial losses. A primary factor contributing to this issue is the lack of a comprehensive national identification system to process and verify public sector workers.
Without a robust identification system, it is difficult to verify the identities of individuals on the payroll, track employee status, and prevent duplicate payments. This creates an environment conducive to ghost workers, who exist only on paper and collect salaries without actually working.
Ondo State takes drastic measures against Ghost workers phenomenon
In Ondo State, ongoing efforts to sanitize the payroll system have revealed alarming findings. According to Mr. Victor Olajorin, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Finance, the state’s workforce has been infiltrated by ghost workers, pensioners still drawing full salaries, and officers earning double pay a clear violation of civil service rules.
“We have an over-bloated workforce, and undoubtedly, I am sure there are many ghost workers,” Mr. Olajorin stated bluntly during an interview with Orange Fm.
He explained that the Salary Verification Committee, which he chairs, was mandated to audit the state payroll across key agencies including TESCOM, the Hospitals Management Board (HMB), and the Local Government Service Commission (LGSC). According to him, the first critical step was the retrieval and analysis of essential documents such as the Nominal Roll, Disposition List, Pay Register, and Pension Payroll.
“The documents were consequently scrutinized, and in the process, some infractions were discovered,” he said.
“Our beam light was initially focused on TESCOM, and what we found was disturbing: officers and pensioners receiving both salary and pension, retired officers reappointed and still drawing full salaries, and cases of hanging or unverifiable salary payments,” he explained.
He reported that these infractions cost the state over ₦304.8 million, all uncovered from the education sector alone.
The probe later extended to the Hospitals Management Board, where the committee conducted on-the-spot verifications across medical facilities. The findings were equally damning.
“We uncovered cases of abscondment, officers on study leave without pay still receiving full salaries, and salaries paid to individuals who had already resigned. In some cases, personnel could not even be traced to any known health facility,” Olajorin said.
These discrepancies amounted to an additional₦192.8 million in financial losses. Combined, the infractions from both TESCOM and HMB totaled ₦497,733,404.
“This is almost half a billion naira lost to payroll fraud in just two sectors,” he said. “It’s unacceptable.”
Digital Reforms to Clean the Payroll
In response to the systemic fraud, Ondo State has begun integrating Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) to reform its payroll and identity systems. According to Mr. Olajorin, the state has launched a biometric payroll audit, linking employee records to the National Identification Number (NIN) and cross-referencing them with the Bank Verification Number (BVN) and voter registry.
“We’ve embraced digital authentication tools, including fingerprint and facial biometrics, to verify active employees,” Olajorin said. “We are now building a database where all salary payments are tied to verified identity credentials.”
The state is also collaborating with the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) to synchronize its workforce database with national identity infrastructure.
“The goal is to ensure that no person receives a salary unless they are physically verified and digitally authenticated through a unified platform,” he explained.
“We are not just plugging holes we’re rebuilding the system to be transparent, traceable, and fraud-proof.”
He noted that the government is piloting a Digital Civil Service Register, which will serve as a single source of truth for hiring, promotions, transfers, and retirements. Once fully implemented, this register will be accessible across all MDAs and automatically flag inconsistencies or duplicate entries.
“Technology is the future of governance,” Olajorin emphasized. “Without DPI, we will continue to chase fraud after it has occurred. Now, we’re trying to prevent it before it starts.”
How the World Is Winning the War: Lessons from India, Estonia, and Ghana
Across the world, countries are using Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) a set of open, interoperable digital systems anchored on foundational identity, payments, and data exchange to drastically reduce fraud in the public sector.
India’s Aadhaar System
India’s Aadhaar, launched in 2009, assigns a 12-digit unique identity number based on biometric and demographic data. With over 1.3 billion people enrolled, Aadhaar is the world’s largest digital ID system. It is linked to government services, welfare distribution, pensions, and civil servant payments.
Aadhaar enabled India to remove over 400 million fake beneficiaries and saved the country over $20 billion through direct benefit transfers. Every recipient is verified biometrically before receiving any government benefit.
Estonia: A Digital Society from Ground Up
Estonia’s mandatory digital identity system gives citizens access to nearly all public services from taxes to voting. Every citizen has a cryptographically secured ID and records are updated in real time across all agencies.
Their e-governance has made ghost workers nearly impossible. All employment records are centralized and continuously audited. The system saves the country an estimated 2% of its GDP annually.
Ghana’s Integrated Digital Identity Approach
Ghana launched its Ghana Card in 2020, linking national ID to tax, social security, banking, and civil service data. With over 17 million citizens registered, ghost workers were systematically eliminated from payrolls across ministries.
The turning point was linking everything to one source of truth, and the digital ID became the backbone of every government transaction.
Within a year, Ghana recorded a 90% drop in payroll-related fraud in several agencies.
What Nigeria Is Doing—and Still Needs to Do
Mr. Chijioke Izuchukwu, a Senior Officer at NIMC, noted that Nigeria’s National Identification Number (NIN) is designed to be the country’s foundational ID.
“The NIN is supposed to unify all identity systems BVN, voter ID, SIM registration, immigration records. But we’ve not achieved full integration,” he said.
“We need a DPI approach although we have already embraced it, which is hereby an infrastructure that connects all arms of government, both federal and state, on a single identity layer.”
The Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy, along with NIMC and NITDA, has developed a Digital Public Infrastructure Roadmap. However, implementation remains a challenge.
“We must stop treating identity systems as side projects and instead see them as the heart of anti-corruption and economic reform.”, Izuchukwu stated.
Expert Opinions: One Nigeria, One ID
Dr. Jumoke Oduwole, a governance reform advocate, emphasized:
“Digital identity is not just a tech issue, it’s a nation-building tool. Without it, the fight against corruption is handicapped.”
She continued, “President Bola Tinubu should champion this cause. A unified identity system would strengthen fiscal discipline, public trust, and service delivery.
“When you know every naira is going to a real, verified person, you start seeing efficiency. In the private sector, we’ve done it. It’s time the government caught up.”
“You cannot plan for 200 million people if you don’t know who they are,” said Dr. Oduwole.
“Digital Public Infrastructure is Nigeria’s next revolution. The question is: will we embrace it, or continue paying salaries to ghosts?”
Also, an economist Mr. Ayokunle Ojo said, “It’s a paradox Nigeria is adopting digital tools but failing to harmonize them”. “Every ministry and parastatal is doing their own thing. Until there’s interoperability between identity systems, we’ll keep bleeding money.”
“When we talk about ghost workers, we’re talking about dead people, duplicated names, and even those who migrated years ago,” he added. “It’s a national embarrassment.”
Conclusion: A Digital Future or Continued Waste?
Nigeria’s payroll crisis is a glaring symptom of a bigger issue: the absence of a robust, interoperable digital identity infrastructure. As other nations have shown, the solution isn’t just technology, it’s commitment, leadership, and accountability.
“The introduction of a national identification system is long overdue,” said Mrs Miracle Okoye, a public affairs analyst. “It will not only help eliminate ghost workers but also enhance transparency and accountability in the public sector. With a robust identification system, the government can ensure that resources are allocated to legitimate employees, reducing financial losses and improving the overall efficiency of the public sector.”
Mrs Okoye further emphasized, “A multi-stakeholder approach is essential for the successful implementation and integration of the national identification system. This will ensure that the system is inclusive, secure, and effective in addressing the issue of ghost workers.”
She emphasised that by implementing a comprehensive national identification system, Nigeria can take a significant step towards eliminating ghost workers and promoting transparency and accountability in the public sector.
This report is produced under DPI Africa Journalism Fellowship Programme of the Media Foundation for West Africa and Co-develop.
