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Presidency Assures Nigerian Civil Servants On Implementation Of New Minimum Wage

He said: “For Mr President, he has signed the bill. Remember that the negotiations took place for over two years and all these things (funding) were taken into account and they were addressed by the committee.

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The Presidency has advised civil servants in Nigeria to expect the full implementation of N30,000 as the new minimum wage.

This was the submission of Senator Ita Enang, Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters (Senate), while speaking to the Punch newspaper in a report published on Wednesday.

He said: “For Mr President, he has signed the bill. Remember that the negotiations took place for over two years and all these things (funding) were taken into account and they were addressed by the committee.

“The governors and the local governments were all heard before eventually it was agreed that N30,000 should be the minimum wage from the initial demand of labour.

“I don’t think we should entertain any fears until there is any implementation problem.”

Enang, however, said that states that are yet to pass the 2019 budget might have some difficulty in paying the new wage.

“The only fear may be that some states may have already passed their budgets (2019) on the basis of N18,000, without the inclusion of the wage increase; in which case, they may have to consider a supplementary budget.

“Even the Federal Government today is still operating the 2018 budget, which had N18,000 as the minimum wage. The 2019 budget, which contains the provision for N30,000, has yet to be passed by the National Assembly.

“For the FG, it will only do adjustment of cost when the budget is passed without needing an additional appropriation."