Kano, Katsina and Bauchi states yesterday announced they had approved payment of the new minimum wage. Other states that have declared willingness to pay are Kaduna, Borno, Kebbi, Adamawa, Jigawa and Lagos.In a statement, the Kano State Commissioner for Information, Malam Muhammad Garba, said that the government workers had started receiving the consolidated wages from December 2019.

According to him, the payment was to fulfil Governor Abdullahi Ganduje’s earlier assurance to increase the restructured workers wage by N600. Garba, who promised that the government would settle arrears of Apri to November, 2019 on installments bases, said an agreement to that effect had already been reached with the Joint Public Service Negotiation Council (JNC).He appealed to civil servants to reciprocate the gesture by dedicating themselves to their duties so as to improve service delivery. He also enjoined the workers, particularly those in the revenue generating entities, to make extra effort by ensuring that taxable individuals and corporate bodies always pay their dues so that government will continue its laudable development programmes for the teeming populace.

In Katsina State, the workers are to begin receiving the N30, 000 new minimum wage from this month, with a backlog of arrears to be paid when other states commence payment.The agreement was reached during negotiations between representatives of government and those of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), which dragged for days with both sides refusing to shift ground. But the Joint Committee for the Implementation of New Minimum Wage, which represented the NLC, and the Joint Public Service Negotiation Council (JPSNC), which represented the government, ended the negotiation with the agreement in the wee hours of the New Year.

The final agreement read out by the chairman of the joint committee, Mustapha Inuwa, indicated January 2020 as commencement date for payment of the new wage. He said that both government and labour agreed to raise a committee, involving labour, to assist the government in boosting internally generated revenue.Governor Bala Mohammed of Bauchi State approved the payment of the N30,000 minimum wage for the state employees, commencing from January 2020.

The state government had on December 22, 2019 set up a 41-man panel headed by the Head of Service, Ahmed Ma’aji, to come up with the modality for the implementation of the wage. A statement from the Secretary to the State Government, Mohammed Sabi’u Baba, on Tuesday night said the governor had received the report of the committee and had
Approved the payment of the minimum wage for employees in the state with effect from January 1, 2020.

In Osun State, Governor Gboyega Oyetola has inaugurated a committee to work out the modalities for the implementation of the minimum wage for all workers.He said nothing would make him to discontinue payment of full workers’ salaries promptly as the workers’ welfare is very important to his administration.

Oyetola who spoke while inaugurating the committee, urged members to ensure that they arrived at an amount of increment that would not be capable of stopping the government from paying salaries as and when due. He said his administration would work through the committee to arrive at a soft landing that would be pleasing to both workers and government. He commended the labour leaders and the entire workers for their cooperation and sense of understanding in the last one year.