Two months after it agreed with labour on N70,000 minimum wage, the Federal Government on Thursday began payment of the new salary and its consequential adjustments to public servants across all levels of the federal civil service.
With over 1.2 million civil servants on the payroll of the Federal Government, the wage bill will now be N4.019 trillion annually.
The PUNCH reports that a warrant for September 2024’s salary, signed by the Accountant-General of the Federation, Dr. Oluwatoyin Madein, and addressed to the Budget Office of the Federation, directed the commencement of the new payment.
This was as documents from the National Salaries, Income and Wages Commission (NSIWC) revealed the amount civil servants under the Consolidated Public Service Salary Structure would earn per cadre. The amount was calculated per annum.
A breakdown showed that level one officers would now earn N930,000 per annum, and level two N934,160. The salary figure increased to N937,713 for level three officers, while grade level four officers now earns N950,243.
Grade Level five officers will earn N973,123, level six N1,041,786 per annum and level seven (N1,277,667).
For senior level officers, the document showed that Grade level 12 officers will now earn N2,007,152 per annum following the approval of the consequential adjustments.
While grade level 13 officials get N2,182,637, level 15 officials will get N2,358,936, and public servants on level 16 will receive N3,611,689 per annum.
Grade Level 17 officers, a position reserved for permanent secretary and the highest office in the civil service, will now earn N6,918,560.
Under every level, an amount was allocated for civil servants as salary, subject to change every year before their next promotion to the next level.
For instance, grade one level on step two public servant will earn N935,585, (N941,173) for step three, N946,859 for step four, N952,345 for step five, N957,931 for step six, N963,518 for step seven, N969,104 for step eight, N974,690 for step nine, N980,270 for step 10, N985,863 for step 11, N991,449 for step 12, N997,035 for step 13, N1,002,621 for step 14 and N1,008,209 for step 15.
In an interview, the Director of Press in the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation, Bawa Mokwa said: “The new minimum wage payment will begin from today (Thursday) for this month.
“You can ask civil servants when they start getting alerts. You can confirm that. There is nothing on arrears payment yet. I don’t know anything about that. But payment is starting this month”.
A civil servant also confirmed the information, saying, “Yes, some people have started seeing it”.
According to the warrant, which contained a breakdown of all workers across various Ministries, Departments and Agencies, Armed Forces, Paramilitary, Federal Universities, Polytechnics, Colleges of Education, a total of 1,236,824 workers are included.
The Committee on Consequential Adjustments in Salaries for civil servants met last Friday as regards the new minimum wage template and agreed that the effective date for its implementation would be set at 29 July 2024.
President Bola Tinubu signed the new minimum wage into law on 29 July after meeting with leaders of the Nigeria Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria.
NSIWC noted that the reason for setting the date of implementation to July 2024 was due to the fact that the President signed the bill into law in July.
The letter by the Accountant-General, which was dated 24 September 2024, read: “We hereby forward the September 2024 warrants requests for MDAs (Ministries, Departments and Agencies), retired heads of service and permanent secretaries, Nigeria Police, military, para-military as well as tertiary institutions for your consideration and funding.
“Note that: The New National Minimum Wage as approved by Mr. President is implemented this September 2024. The 35 per cent and 25 per cent salary adjustment for staff on CONPSS, CONRAISS and CONPASS as approved by Mr. President is implemented this September 2024.
“One new MDA – Federal University Teaching Hospital, Wukari was created and payrolled this September 2024 with 239 staff count and gross amount of N52,322,098.82.
“Attached are the hard and soft copies of the warrants for your approval and funding. Please accept the assurances of the warm regards of the Accountant-General of the Federation”.
In the breakdown attached, it was noted that N334,925,372,928.14 will be used to bear the cost for the over 1.2 million workers per month.
The government had commenced additional revenue for the payment of the new minimum wage.
This development, which affected revenue distribution to states, was received with opposing views when an update on statutory allocation showed that the government transferred a sum of N200bn into the non-savings account at the August FAAC (Federal Account Allocation Committee) meeting, making a total of N595 billion.
Reacting to the commencement of the new payment, spokesperson of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) Comrade Benson Upah; and Deputy President of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), Tommy Etim called on organisations and others to follow suit by starting payment of the new wage.
Asked if the development was a good move, Upah said: “Yes, I think so. We ask other entities to emulate this example”.
Etim said: “FG’s committee on consequential adjustments already released a template, so, no one has any moral ground to delay the payment of the minimum wage. We now advise that all other parties follow suit and commence the payment of the new minimum wage”.
On the consequential adjustment, another civil servant said the increase was insufficient given the economic hardships caused by government policies.
The grade-level 12 officer said: “This salary increase I am seeing is too small compared to what we have faced in the last one year and the current economic hardship in the country. I think we have been deceived. Is this what we waited months for”?
Source: The PUNCH
