Economist counsels states on Nigeria’s national minimum wage

An economist and ex-Chief of Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr Titus Okuroumu, has urged state governments to be proactive in resolving the challenges militating against the proposed new national minimum wage.
This he said was necessary to prevent the economy from being shut down by labour strike.
Okuroumu, a former director in CBN said in Lagos that although the upward review of the Federation Allocation Sharing Formula to states was the way to go to meet the new wage increase, many states were not looking inward.
Nigeria Governors’ Forum had said that to pay the proposed N30, 000 minimum wage, a review of the sharing formula should be done among others things.
The governors claimed that accepting to pay the new wage without fulfilment of the condition would make the states go bankrupt.
Okuroumu said that besides the states asking for upward review in the revenue sharing formula, most states should be innovative in generating funds to meet their fiscal obligations.
“Most states should be innovative and look inward, because most states have areas where their comparative advantage was high, which should be exploited.
“Most states are gifted with one economic prospect or the other and if such resources are well harnessed, it will make them completely independent,” he said.
He said that the other two tiers of government should pay their workers promptly, should the formula be reviewed upward.