NECA: States Have No Excuse to Pay Below ₦70,000 Minimum Wage

State governments must do better by their workers, the Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA) has insisted, stressing that civil servants deserve wages higher than the ₦70,000 minimum benchmark.

NECA’s Director-General, Adewale Smatt-Oyerinde, made the point during an interview on Channels Televison’s The Morning Brief yesterday. He argued that the rise in federal allocations and the country’s escalating cost of living had stripped states of any excuse for not improving workers’ pay.

His comments come after President Bola Tinubu signed the new minimum wage bill into law in July 2024, raising the national benchmark from ₦30,000 to ₦70,000 following protracted negotiations between government, labour unions and the private sector.

Some states have since moved beyond the federal threshold. On August 27, Imo State Governor Hope Uzodimma raised the minimum wage to ₦104,000, while the Ebonyi State government followed within 24 hours, pegging its own at ₦90,000 for all civil and public servants.

Smatt-Oyerinde maintained that workers remain the backbone of both state economies and the private sector and that enhancing their welfare would directly boost productivity.

“No state really has an excuse in the current reality to stay at ₦70,000, especially with people struggling with the price of petrol” he said. “A lot still needs to be done on food security and shelter. Once you fix that, the question won’t be about the quantum of ₦70,000, but about what that amount can buy for an average household”.

He added that civil servants should be regarded as the engine of governance and treated as such. “Workers are critical drivers of growth, both in the public and private sector. As the ILO said, workers are not commodities” he stressed.