New wage commences in April as FG approves N24tn for salaries

A new pay scale for workers will start on April 1, 2024, the Federal Government declared on Thursday.

The current N30,000 minimum wage will be history by the end of March 2024, Idris Mohammed, the Minister of Information and National Orientation, told reporters in Abuja.

The Federal Government will shell out N24.66 trillion on wages in the next three years, according to the 2024–2026 Fiscal Framework budgets.

The Federal Government gave N35,000 to each of its employees to cushion the impact of the fuel subsidy removal by President Bola Tinubu on May 29, 2023.

But organised labour said the N35,000 pay boost was just a temporary fix and that the minimum wage needed a rethink in 2024.

The Federal Government’s team and the Joint National Public Service Negotiating Council agreed on how to roll out the N30,00 minimum wage on October 18, 2019, after months of talks.

But trade unions said on Thursday that they had kicked off talks with the federal government, pointing out that the country’s labour law mandates that the minimum wage be revised every five years.