Kaduna Announces N8,799 As New Minimum Wage

The Kaduna State Government on Friday announced N8,799 as the new minimum wage for its civil servants with immediate effect. The State’s Head of Service, Alhaji Balarabe Yakubu announced this shortly after the State Executive Council meeting in Kaduna.

“From October 1, a level 01 step 1 worker in the state will now receive N8,799 as salary as against the former N6,960, showing a 26.42 per cent increase,” he said. Yakubu said that workers on level 17 would now receive N115,799 as against the former salary of N80,599 representing a 43.73 per cent increase. The Head of Service said that more than 76,000 state and local government workers would benefit from the gesture. Yakubu said that the state would incur an additional N468 million commitment or an average increase of 30 per cent over the old salaries.

A breakdown showed a monthly increase of N128 million to the state, N75million to Local Government Councils, while an additional monthly commitment of N266million would be made on salaries of primary school teachers in the state. He appealed to the workers to rededicate themselves and ensure that all vices and illegalities in the civil service were checked. In his reaction, the state chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Daniel Bissallah said while the union appreciated government’s gesture, workers would continue to struggle for more increases on their wages.

Bissallah commended the Head of Civil Service for the effort and urged the workers to rededicate themselves for the challenges ahead. It would be recalled that the workers’ salary was reviewed upward by 15 per cent in 2007. The teachers got 20 per cent rise before the 27.5 per cent increase under the Teachers Salary Scheme (TSS).

The government has 86,000 workforce, comprising 23,000 state workers, 18,000 local government workers and 45,000 teachers on its payroll.