Kaduna State to begin payment of N30,000 minimum wage

TRACKING >The Kaduna State government Monday said it will commence the payment of the N30, OOO minimum wage to its staff from September 1, 2019.

“The Executive Council meeting, chaired by Dr. Hadiza Balarabe, the Deputy Governor, noted the commitment of Governor Nasir-El-Rufai to strengthen the public service and its capacity to deliver quality and responsive public service,” the State’s governor Special Adviser to on Media and Communication, Muyiwa Adekeye said in a statement on Monday.

“The council on the minimum wage memo and unanimously approved commencement of the implementation in September 2019.”

Adekeye further stated that the Council approved that the new national minimum wage and consequential adjustments to civil servants should begin from September.

He explained that before the government reached its decisions to implement the new minimum wage, it assessed several scenarios, considering the state’s Internally Generated Revenues and allocations from the Federation Account.

He said that with the new wage structure, the lowest-paid workers in the Kaduna State Civil Service will enjoy increments of as much as 67% increment while middle-ranking officers from Grade 10 to 14 will benefit from 60% salary increment.

The new salary regime will add almost a billion naira to the state’s monthly expenditure and makes payment of pensions and salaries take the largest chunk of monthly expenditure.

“This is almost N1bn monthly increase in the wage bill means that salary and pension commitments will take the lion’s share of the state government expenditure,” Adekeye said.

“Meeting these salary obligation while achieving development objectives for citizens will further raise the pressure to expand and deepen revenue sources and collections.”

Adekeye, however, failed to mention if workers on levels 14 to 17 will enjoy any salary increment