Kaduna has commenced payment of N72k minimum wage, says governor’s aide

Ibraheem Musa, chief press secretary to Uba Sani, governor of Kaduna, says the state has commenced the payment of N72,000 minimum wage to civil servants.

Some states, including the federal capital territory (FCT), had announced strike over the non-implementation of the minimum wage signed into by President Bola Tinubu in July.

In a statement issued on Sunday, Musa said the least worker in Kaduna state was paid N72,000 minimum wage in November.

Musa said the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) should not categorise the state among those yet to implement the new minimum wage policy.

“The least paid worker received N72,000 as gross salary in the month of November,” the statement reads.

‘’His Excellency, the Executive Governor of Kaduna State, Senator Uba Sani, has complied with the spirit and letter of the National Minimum Wage Law, by paying the lowest paid civil servant N72,000 last month.

‘’NLC is harping on the issue of consequential adjustment but the labour body should realise that there is a difference between salary increment and Minimum Wage.

“Kaduna State receives an average of N8 billion from the Federal Account Allocation Committee(FAAC) from the centre every month. It also generates around N4 bn monthly. That translates to N12 billion revenue monthly.’

‘’However, the monthly wage bill has jumped from N5.4 billion to N6.3 billion with the implementation of the Minimum Wage last month. And there is also the deduction of N4 billion for loan payments every month.

‘’So, the wage bill and the deduction have gulped over N10 million out of the total N12 billion revenue. That leaves only N2 billion for rural transformation, overhauling the health sector, revamping education and providing dividends of democracy to the people of Kaduna State.

‘’There are over 10 million people who are also entitled to the accrued revenue of Kaduna State. There are 84,827 civil servants in the state.”

Musa said “it is unreasonable for the Government to spend over 90% of its revenue” on the civil servants in the state.

He asked the NLC to be patient with the government over the consequential adjustments, adding that demand will be met when revenue improves.