The National Agency for the Control of AIDS has assured participants of the 2023 non-communicable diseases step survey of their payments.

The acting Director of NACA, James Aneneh, gave the assurance when he received a group of the participants who were at NACA office in Abuja on Wednesday to protest payment delay.

Mr Aneneh, who took the protesters into the office for discussion, said that though the project was not a Federal Government funded programme, the agency would do everything within its power to help fast-track the outstanding debt.

He said, “NACA was just a fund-holder of the project. The agency was not the coordinator of the activities. The project was funded by the Global Fund.’’

Mr Aneneh also pleaded with the group to understand that because it was global fund specific, there were strict processes in place, including verification of claims before payment.

He stated, “Based on global fund implementation principles, when you have concluded an activity, there are processes that must take place before you get paid, whatever is owed. This is not a government of Nigeria activity, which means we are using foreign funder, which is a Global Fund. They have their own due process in place before any payments can be finalised.

“While all of this has gone on, I also made aware this morning that some of your retirements came in March. If a retirement came in March, there are many processes to have to take place before payments are finalised.’’

Mr Aneneh said while some states had been paid, some were cleared for payment, while some were also being processed for payments.

“Like I said earlier, because it’s global funds specifically, which I think governments of Nigeria should be doing too, they have strict processes in place before payments are made. They have due diligence. They must verify things. If you sent a flight ticket, they must verify it before they can clear it for payment.

`From the briefing I received from the Global Fund this morning is that these processes are still ongoing. There are still some states that are still being verified. So the states are being cleared in batches. We have just cleared a state that is going to be paid any time from now,” he said.

He assured them that NACA was not sitting on their money but their claims had to be verified by Global Fund before any payment could be made.

He added, “There’s nothing we can do with that fund. If we don’t spend it as Global Fund has asked us to spend it, we’ll return it back to them. We really, really sympathise with you and understand where you are coming from, and your anger. We have to listen to you people carefully and figure out a way to immediately expedite action for you to get your payment. There is no reason for somebody to do a job six or eight months prior and not get paid. Even though we have the resources, if we pay you before the Global Fund says you can go ahead and pay, the government of Nigeria will have to pay that money back because it becomes ineligible.”

On the sleep out claim, Mr Aneneh said that the office would discuss with the groups vocal persons to look into the agreement that was reached and possible intervention.

Speaking earlier during the protest at the agency’s gate, Judith Ekeh, who led three others in a peaceful protest to NACA office, said they were engaged in various positions by the agency and the Federal Ministry of Health for the exercise 2023, but yet to be paid.

Mrs Ekeh, who served as enumerator during the exercise, urged the agency to pay their money since they concluded the survey since 2023.

She said before they were engaged for the survey, they were promised to be paid in three batches.

“We told that the third batch is going to come after the retirement of all work documents. Twenty days into the job, our training allowance was paid. We already agreed they were going to pay us N8, 000 per day. We finished the job and retired our documents, all the tablets given to us, all the apparatus, everything given to us.

“My team worked in Niger State, we finished the work and came back from the field since August. Our first payment came around December 24. Since then, no other payment has been made,’’ she said.

Mrs Ekeh said it was painful that their payments were delayed.

“If you know how Niger terrain was? We took risks. I was sick for several days. One of my teammates lost her pregnancy. We took much risk for this payment to be delayed,’’ she said.

Mr Ekeh also urged the agency to intervene on the payment of their “sleep-out –allowance.’’

She said that they were told that only 12 out of 60 days would be paid which according to her was unacceptable.

Mr Ekek, however, appreciated the mature way they were received by NACA management.

(NAN)