Minimum Wage: Our problem is that ‘we don’t know how to pay it’, Governors reacts to increment

The Chairman of the Forum, Governor Abdulaziz Yari of Zamfara State, revealed that they are not against the upward review of the minimum wage, he said this while briefing journalists on the outcome of the forum meeting held on Wednesday in Abuja.

He said that the issue was not just on agreed figure to be paid by the governors, but the “ability or resources to take care of that agreed minimum wage.”

Yari said that the forum had made it clear that the governors were not against any upward review of salaries or against the Nigerian Labour Congress to get minimum wage reviewed.

“But, the problem of state is the capacity to pay what is agreed. As we are talking today, we are struggling with N18,000. Some of the states are paying 35 per cent, some 50 per cent and still some states have salary arrears.

“So, it is not about only reviewing it but how we are going to get the resources to cater for it.”

Yari added that the National President of NLC, Comrade Ayuba Wabba, was invited to brief the Forum on states’ performance in the use of London and Paris Club refunds.

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The Federal Government disbursed the fund to states with the condition to use larger percentage of the money to pay workers’ salaries.

He said while some states had recorded some progress in line with the condition they signed with the Federal Government, others owe arrears.

“So, we invited the National President of NLC to give us details on how some states performed. Some other states that are not up to date, where they are.

“So, they have signed Memorandum of Understanding with the NLC at the national level and their representative in states on when they are going to overcome the issue of salary arrears.

“That has been done and it has been taken to the Central Bank Governor to ensure that those states were also paid.”

The governors present at the eighth meeting included the new Ekiti State governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi; and his counterparts from Kebbi, Kaduna, Lagos, Benue, Niger, Adamawa, Plateau, and Kogi states.