The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) in Kebbi State has said that it had received assurances from Gov. Abubakar Bagudu that the state government would pay the new national minimum wage of N30, 000.
Chairman of the labour union in the state, Umar Alhassan, disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Brinin Kebbi on Tuesday.
“We were with the governor last week during fast-breaking and he assured us that he was ready to pay N30,000 new minimum wage to civil servants in the State,” Alhassan said.
According to him, once the relevant circular from the Federal Government is ready and is sent to all states, ”I am ready to comply to ensure that civil servants get their N30,000 new minimum wage in the state.”
The NLC chairman said that workers in Kebbi had no problem with the state government on the implementation of the new minimum wage as it was committed to paying it.
Alhassan praised the governor for using funds from Paris club to pay the salaries of civil servants and pensioners without leaving outstanding payments.
“From the Paris Club funds given to the Kebbi state government, 30 per cent is being used for settlement of civil servants salaríes and pensions without backlogs.
“It is only pension payments which he inherited from last six to eight years that is why the burden is too much, but presently more than 70 per cent has been paid,” he said.
He urged the Federal Government to ensure that state governors used refunds from the Paris Club when released to them to pay the new minimum wage for the benefit of Nigerians, “because it will improve the economy of the country and reduce poverty’’.
The Paris Club refunds are the longstanding claims resulting from reported over-deductions regarding Paris Club debts made from state government accounts as far back as 1995 to 2002.
These refunds are over-deductions from the states’ Federal Accounts Allocation Committee payments for foreign loan servicing over the stated period.
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