13th March, 2024
By Taiwo Okanlawon
Niger state governor, Mohammed Umar Bago has approved the payment of wage award of N20,000 for every civil servants in the state.
This is coming following President Bola Tinubu’s appeal to state governments to implement the payment of the wage award to help cushion the economic challenges faced by the people.
President Tinubu had urged state governors to start paying the wage award pending the determination of the new minimum wage in order to reduce the hardship of the economy on the people.
Tinubu, who was in Minna on Monday, March 11, to commission the newly commissioned domestic terminal of the renamed Bola Ahmed Tinubu International Airport Minna and the massive agriculture mechanization project of Governor Mohammed Umar Bago, said that if the states had implemented the wage awards, it would provide much-needed relief without causing inflationary pressures.
The president harped on the need for all states to adopt the wage award saying that the National Executive Council would also adopt it.
“If all of you, the sub-nationals have been paying the wages award, pending the determination of the new salary wage. Let all the state start paying the wages award. Whatever they are taking now plus the wage award would relieve the public.
“Please, I am not giving an order, I am appealing to you states, start paying the wages awards, let everyone start paying it. It is a relief to the people. The mechanism is the fact that that it won’t be inflationary if we announce the new salary wage in a few weeks or months, they would have gotten use to the basic wages of N30,000 plus the wages award, it will have dampening effect on the market. Please get sub-nationals together and NEC should adopt this.”
The decision of the Niger state governor to pay the N20,000 wage award was made during the state Executive Council meeting held in Minna on Wednesday.
The governor assured that the payment would be made unfailing on Wednesday and workers would begin to receive alerts to this effect.
Bago also said that there will be feeding of people in various points of the wards during the Ramadan while the state government would commence the distribution of palliatives of 120 trucks of grains to assuage the plight of the people.