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From Felix Ikem, Nsukka
The planned deduction from December 2025 salaries of primary school teachers in Uzo Uwani Local Government Area of Enugu State is legally called ‘capitation rate’ and not ‘sanitation rate’ as seen in the recent salary payment bank narration of schoolteachers in the council area.
The council explained that the capitation rate is an exercise, which is statutory and payable by workers in different local governments across the federation.
The Education Secretary of the council, Chief Peter Egwuatu, explained that the rate is an annual fee of N2,500 per person, which before now was payable to the Local Government Internal Revenue (IGR) through manual collection, but has been digitised recently for collection by banks.
He noted: “As a tradition in the local government area, head teachers of primary schools used to collect this rate directly from teachers and remit the same to the local government revenue account.”
Egwuatu, however, stated that the council did not collect the rate in 2024, which made the local government deduct the rate for 2024 and 2025, amounting to N5,000 deducted in December 2025.
“The deduction is called ‘capitation rate’ and not ‘sanitation rate’ as mistakenly written on the payment narration. The amount paid annually is N2,500 and it is credited into the Local Government Internally Generated Revenue account. So, it is a tradition and every teacher knows this to be a legal fee,” Egwuatu stated.
Some sections of social media had reported the alleged deduction of N5,000 for sanitation rate from the salaries of primary school teachers in the area.
