Salaries

Nigeria’s National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission (NSIWC) has announced
approval of increase of between 25 per cent and 35 per cent salary for Civil Servants.

Mr Emmanuel Njoku, on Tuesday in Abuja said the
the is for Civil Servants on the remaining six Consolidated Salary Structures..

The spokesman of the commission, Mr Emmanuel Njoku, said:” They include Consolidated Public Service Salary Structure (CONPSS), Consolidated Research and Allied Institutions Salary Structure (CONRAISS) and Consolidated Police Salary Structure (CONPOSS).

“Others are: Consolidated Para-military Salary Structure (CONPASS).
Consolidated Intelligence Community Salary Structure (CONICCS) and Consolidated Armed Forces Salary Structure (CONAFSS).

“The increases will take effect from January 1,” he said.

Mr Njoku said the government has also approved increases in pension of between 20 per cent and 28 per cent for pensioners on the Defined Benefits Scheme.

The increase is in line with the provisions of Section 173(3) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended).

Those in the Tertiary Education and Health Sectors had already received their increases.

“This involves Consolidated University Academic Salary Structure (CONUASS) and Consolidated Tertiary Institutions Salary Structure (CONTISS) for universities.

“For Polytechnics and Colleges of Education, it involves the Consolidated Polytechnics and Colleges of Education Academic Staff Salary Structure (CONPCASS) and Consolidated Tertiary Educational Institutions Salary Structure (CONTEDISS).

” The Health Sector also benefitted through the Consolidated Medical Salary Structure (CONMESS) and Consolidated Health Sector Salary Structure (CONHESS). ”

Nigerian workers are still awaiting general increase in minimum wage as talks between labour and government peaks.

Abuja, Feb. 2, 2024: Some Nigerian civil servants have complained about the “inexplicable’’ delay in payment of the January salaries in spite of improved government revenue.

As at Feb. 1, Nigerian government workers are yet to receive their January emolument.

According to one of the civil servants, Ibrahim Ali, it is becoming a culture for the Federal Government to delay payment of monthly salaries.

“The situation is no longer acceptable for the Federal Government to keep delaying salaries without explanation.

“We are aware that the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) shared N1.1 trillion amongst the three tiers of government, so why the delay’’ he said.

Also, Mrs Hauwa Sule, condemned the idea of delaying the monthly salaries of government workers.

“This is no longer acceptable. Civil servants plan based on the monthly salary, which is not even adequate.

“In the midst of this harsh economic condition occasioned by the government’s economic policies, the list the government can do is to ensure prompt payment of salaries,’’ she said.

Emmanuel Uka, a civil servant, urged the Federal Government to  take the plight of ordinary Nigerians as a priority and stop the delay in workers’ monthly salaries.

FAAC shared N1.13 trillion among the three tiers of government as revenue generated in December 2023.

FAAC disclosed this in a communiqué issued at the end of its January meeting.

The total figure shared represented an increase of N40 billion or 3.67 per cent compared to the N1.09 trillion shared for November 2023.

The total amount includes gross statutory revenue, Value Added Tax (VAT), Companies Income Tax (CIT), Augmentations from Forex and Non-oil Mineral Revenue, and electronic money transfer levy (EMTL), among others.

However, the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation (OAGF)  which did not  give any reason for the delay, said that  civil servants would start  getting their January salaries by Thursday evening.

Mr Bawa Mokwa, the Director of Press, OAGF, gave the assurance while reacting to the complaints by government workers.

Abuja, Sept. 18, 2023: The Chairman of the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), Alhaji Muhammed Shehu, says that political office holders in Nigeria do not earn outrageous emoluments as speculated by Nigerians.

Shehu made the announcement on Sunday in Abuja.

Nigerians recently condemned reports on a proposed 114 per cent increase in salaries of political office holders by the commission, amid what they described as biting economic hardships in the country.

Shehu described information about the salary increase as not true.

He, however, said that it was the constitutional responsibility of RMAFC to determine and review the salaries of executive, legislative and judicial officers.

He said that their salaries were last reviewed in 2007.

“From 2008 till date there had not been any single review.

“Last year, some individuals took the Federal Government to court. These were some activists concerned about the salaries of judicial officers.

“In the court, the judge ruled that a judge should be paid about N10 million a month, that was the court ruling, ” he said.

He said that the commission would not contemplate the speculated increase now, considering the prevailing economic challenges faced by Nigerians.

“We are Nigerians, we are not going to start talking about reviewing salaries of political office holders now because of the challenges that the government is facing.

“As a commission, we are going to do our work but we are not going to say we will do it now.

“We will do it when the climate is right and then we will take it forward to the stakeholders for them to decide on what to do.

“I want to disabuse the minds of Nigerians. It is not true that people are getting jumbo salaries.

“The monthly salary of Mr President is less than N1.5 million; that of a minister is not even up to one million naira.

“I know of an average CBN worker that is not even a director, who earns more than a minister.

“People in NNPC, NCC, ports authority earn huge salaries. What is the salary of a governor? What is the salary of a legislator?”

The chairman said that what people considered as outrageous earnings by lawmakers were statutory office running costs, which should, ordinarily be managed centrally by the National Assembly Service Commission.

“I know some people will say members of the National Assembly get up to 10 million or 11 million monthly.

“Those are not salaries, they are like operating cost of running their offices which in other societies the legislator does not have to see because there is a structure.

“Once you get elected, you make that structure from your constituency office to computers to logistics to the size of your constituency.

Shehu said: “wherever you have constituency office, the workers you hire, It is the National Assembly Service commission that is supposed to take care of that.

“But the Nigerian system allows the legislator to be given a certain amount and then he deals with that and retires the receipts,” the RMAFC chief said.

The Federal Government has blamed some technical challenges for the delay in the payment of June salary to some federal government’s workers.

The Director of Press, Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation (OAGF), Mr Bawa Mokwa, said on Wednesday that the Office is working round the clock to ensure that the problem is resolved.

Mokwa said the delay was caused by technical challenges with the Government Integrated Financial Management System (GIFMIS), one of the salary platforms.

He said: “As we speak, the directors and the consultant in charge of the platforms are in a crucial meeting, working round the clock to resolve the problem.

“Anytime from now, the salaries will start to drop.”

Meanwhile, some civil servants in Abuja have been lamenting delay in the payment of June salaries.

A civil servant, Uloma Offor, who said the salary is overdue, said: “I depend on this monthly salary to survive; I pay my debts and buy food items, but with the delay all these are not possible.

“I plead with the Federal Government to pay up so I can restock my home, my children are crying at home.”

Another civil servant, Jones Tolu, said the delay in the payment of salary, coupled with the removal of petrol subsidy, has made life difficult for the masses.

He said: “My friends in some parastatal and ministries received their June salaries, but not all of them.

“My children cannot go to school because I have outstanding payment to make and their examination comes up soon.

“The government is not even saying anything. They should take urgent steps to address the situation so that civil servants can meet their financial needs.”

On his part, a trader in Wuse market, Ibrahim Umar, said he experienced low patronage over the delay in payment of salary to workers.

“The market has been experiencing low patronage in recent times, and this is connected to the delay in payment of June salary to civil servants,” Umar said.

The National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission (NSWIC) says it is poised to building the capacity of its staff to tackle emerging wages challenges.

The Chairman of the commission, Mr Ekpo Nta, said this while signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU)  between the commission and National Centre for Technology Management (NACETEM) on Wednesday in Abuja.

He said the signing of the document would go a long way in ensuring specialised training modules for the commission in data gathering, research methodology and analytical tools.

According to him, one of the ways for the commission to be abreast of emerging trends with regards to its mandate is to to reinvent itself.

“The collaboration that  culminated in the signing of this MoU started in 2020 when we received a proposal from NACETEM  requesting for participants for the trainings they organise.

“Thereafter we met with NACETEM  zonal team to work out specialised training module for the commission.

“The meeting led to a capacity building exercise for 55 staff in the operation and other support departments in NSIWC.

“We followed this up with further trainings for staff of the commission in Akure in 2021 and in Abuja in 2022, “he said.

The wages commission boss said the MoU that was signed  would help exchange ideas, concepts and training manuals.

He further said it would help with sharing of data for research  purposes among other things.

Nta said it was necessary for government agencies to collaborate to better deliver on their mandates.

The Federal Government has reaffirmed its commitment to harmonise the salaries of workers in the public sector.

The Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr Boss Mustapha, said this at a two-day national forum on compensation management on Monday in Abuja.

The forum was organised by Michael Imoudu National Institute for Labour Studies (MINILS) in collaboration with the National Salaries, Income and Wages Commission (NSIWC) and Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES).

Mustapha said the presidential committee set up for that purpose had commenced work to ensure that all federal workers across board were remunerated appropriately.

The secretary, who was represented by the Permanent Secretary in the office of the government of the federation, Dr Maurice Mbaeri said the forum was apt.

He said the theme, “Compensation Management in Nigeria: Resolving Dilemmas, Mainstreaming Milestone’’ came when there was the need to improve workers’ salaries.

Mustapha said President Muhammadu Buhari had always taken the issue of compensation policy very seriously, adding that he had demonstrated that over time.

He said one of the evidences of the Federal Government’s commitment was the fact that it did not retrench any federal worker in spite of the harsh economic situation.

According to him, the Federal Government has ensured implementation of the National Minimum Wage Act, payment of pension, increment of duty tour allowances, and payment of Special COVID-19 allowance among others.

He said the issue of compensation was a recurring decimal in the workplace globally.

He said the issue, which had generated interest overtime, had often pitched social partners and institutional actors in the industrial relations system against one another.

Mustapha said compensation as one of the key elements of relationship had direct relationship with workers’ performance and productivity.

According to him, all these factors are critical to the success of any organisation and the economy at large.

“In Nigeria, at the heart of most industrial challenges is the issue of compensation and remuneration.

“Over the years, industrial sectors and specific enterprises have witnessed mixed reactions in terms of productivity of workers because of incessant industrial actions.

“While some progress has been made by government and other regulatory agencies with respect to establishing certain parameters for effective compensation management, a lot still needs to be done,’’ he said.

He expressed optimism that the discussions that would arise from the two-day workshop would produce policies that would reflect adequate compensation for workers.

Mustapha said government would be ready to make use of the outcome of the forum.

He urged workers to reciprocate government’s gestures by being productive.

The NSIWC Chairman, Mr Ekpo Nta said it was high time recurring compensation crisis was brought to an end.

Nta, who was also the Chairman of the occasion, said there had been lots of infractions on wages that needed to be looked into and resolved accordingly.

On monitoring implementation of personnel cost, Nta said not so much attention had been paid to personnel cost as much as capital budget and overhead cost.

He called for more scrutiny of personnel cost to fish out any form of infraction.

“The personnel cost in the 2023 budget is estimated to gulp about N4.99 trillion and this cannot be ignored.

“I hope at the end of 2023, the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) would give us clear analysis of what happens with regard to implementation.

“We have been critical of capital and overhead costs but there is less attention on personnel cost.

“This is because government thinks that everybody on the list collects salaries but that has not been the case,’’ Nta said.

He commended the Federal Government for retaining the workforce in spite of the economic downturn.

While enjoining participants at the forum to air their views to find lasting solutions to the issues, the chairman said it was time to review the country’s compensation policies.

He also said discussion around the review of minimum wage had commenced.

The Director-General of MINILS, Mr Issa Aremu, said the forum was organised in view of recent wave of protests in the world and other factors affecting compensation.

He said there was an urgent need for a review of wage administration, particularly in Nigeria.

While admitting that there were several milestones in that regard in Nigeria, including ratification of “42 international labour treaties since 1960’’, Aremu said more needed to be done to meet up current realities.

The Keynote Speaker, Justice Benedict Kanyip said there was no doubt that compensation administration needed to be reviewed.

Kanyip, who is the President, National Industrial Court of Nigeria, said adequate compensation could motivate employees to work.

He also said that adequate compensation could ensure profitability as well as a productive employee.

Kanyip said unjust or harsh labour condition could lead to unrest, adding that peace could be achieved based on social justice.

According to him, workers have dignity and right and as such must be respected.

He, however, said there was the need for commensurate output from workers in terms of productivity to strike a balance.

The forum had in attendance President, Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Country Director, International Labour Organisation (ILO) and other critical stakeholders.

Meanwhile, the two-day forum has a total of eight sessions, with topics including “Making and Implementing National Wage Laws in the Context of Nigeria’s Diversity and Federal System’’.