THE Anambra State Governor, Charles Chukwuma Soludo, has approved for immediate payment of an N70,000 minimum wage for the state’s workers.
The approval was announced after a meeting between labour leaders and the state government late on Friday, October 25.
Soludo said the least-paid worker would go home with not less than N70,000 or more, hinting that workers could receive between N78,000 to N84,000, depending on the outcome of the tabulation by the government team.
The governor also approved a monthly cash award of N10,000 for all pensioners in the state, until a time the pension salary shall be reviewed.
“This interim cash award was necessitated on my goodwill and empathy for the situation of the pensioners who nobody remembers in all the noise about the new minimum wage.
“We urge workers to think positively about contributory pension schemes to save themselves from pension agonies. The earlier the state workers return to the contributory pension scheme, the better for them,” Soludo said.
He assured of the state government’s commitment to better security in Anambra, hinting that in the coming days, it would take delivery of hundreds of security vehicles for the vigilante groups to tighten security.
President Bola Tinubu on Monday, July 29 signed the National Minimum Wage Act 2024 Amendment Bill into law, approving a minimum wage for civil servants from N30,000 to N70,000.
The ICIR can report that Anambra State has joined the growing list of Nigerian states ready to implement the new minimum wage for workers.
On October 23, Kebbi state governor, Nasir Idris, approved a new minimum wage of N75,000 for civil servants in the state. Akwa Ibom state governor Umo Eno had approved N80,000 for public servants in his state.
Other states, including Lagos, Ogun, Rivers, and Kogi have already approved similar wage adjustments, with some going as high as N85,000.
According to a human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, the Nigerian Constitution compels all governors to accept the national minimum wage passed into law.
The renowned lawyer and senior advocate submitted that the National Minimum Wage Act 2024 would be binding on all employers, except those explicitly excluded by the law, The ICIR reported.