Seventeen state governors have raised committees to implement the N70,000 new minimum wage for workers across the country.
The 17 states which set up the implementation committees are Ogun, Ekiti, Sokoto, Kebbi, Osun, Enugu, Borno, Zamfara, Kogi, Kwara, Gombe, Kano, Taraba, Delta, Rivers, Jigawa and Abia.
The development is happening as the Federal Government commenced payment of the new minimum wage to its 1.2 million workers last Thursday.
The Accountant General of the Federation, Oluwatoyin Madein, in a memo to the Budget Office of the Federation, noted that the civil servants would be paid the minimum wage with effect from September.
On the heels of this, Edo, Lagos, Adamawa states have also commenced payment of the new salary as Anambra pledged to implement the minimum wage in October.
The Chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress in Adamawa state, Emmanuel Fashe, confirmed that Governor Ahmadu Fintiri started paying the new minimum wage in August ahead of the Federal Government and other states.
Fashe who spoke to The PUNCH, said that in less than three weeks after President Bola Tinubu signed the new minimum wage bill into law in July, the Adamawa state government commenced payment in August.
He said the state workers got their August salaries but the local government workers received their new minimum wage in September.
Fashe, who blamed the delayed council workers’ salaries payment on the new minimum wage, said that the 2019 consequential adjustment template had to be used to calculate the new wage percentages, and the Accountant General’s office had to update the August payroll.
During the 2024 May Day celebration, the governor had promised to pay any amount the Federal Government agreed with the NLC.
In Anambra, Governor Chukwuma Soludo disclosed that the state will commence the payment of the N70,000 minimum wage from October 2024.
Soludo announced this at the Prof. Dora Akunyili Women’s Development Centre in Awka, on Thursday, while meeting with all principals and head teachers in public primary and secondary schools across the state.
He said, “From next month, we hope to start paying the new minimum wage of N70,000. Also, from next week, a free education policy will be available to senior students in all public schools in Anambra. Students in senior classes who have already paid their N5,000 fees for this term should be refunded and we promise to do more in human development.
“I assure you that in spite of the binding resource constraint, my administration will continue to work round the clock, to deliver on its mandate. We inherited arrears of pensions and gratuities. We will soon complete the payments. Anyone who retires under my watch usually gets their entitlements after successful documentation.
“Though I have approval to borrow 100 billion naira since I came in, we haven’t borrowed. This is because we don’t want to encumber the future. I will borrow to build capacity for the future. Under my watch, we are going to maintain fiscal sustainability.”
