Minimum Wage: Nigerian States Compete to Impress Civil Servants

Edo State Gov. Godwin Obaseki has announced the increase in the state’s  minimum wage for workers earning N40,000.

His announcement came April 29, four days after Lagos Gov. Babajide Sanwo-Olu clarified the state’s minimum wage position. Its workers have been earning twice their former salary since January.

Obaseki has always claimed he pays the highest minimum wage in Nigeria—N40 before now.

Nigerian labour unions, including the NLC and the NUC initially insisted on N1 million monthly. The amount they pared it down to, N300, 000, is still in contention for now.

But analysts say they should further cut down on their expectations.

Edo competing with Lagos on minimum wage payment depends on a number of things, beyond labour politics.

According to the figures the NBS released last October, Edo grossed in over N45 billion in IGR—compared to Lagos’ N651 billion. Rivers, FCT followed with N172 billion and N124 billion respectively. 

Edo ranks No. 8, and has a total workforce of 1.9 million people, though there is no official record of its state civil service workforce. Lagos, however, boasts over 100,000, going by a 2017 figure.

Obaseki has said he’s working toward ramping up the state IGR to N70 billion, and has his N62 billion currently.

Many states spend a larger percent of their resources, including the monthly Federal Account Allocation, the IGR, and others, on recurrent expenditures. This leaves little for capital development spending.

States with poor revenue figure joining the competition to impress workers with high minimum wages may end up borrowing more.