States have zero excuse not to pay N70,000 minimum wage — NECA

The Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association, NECA, has stated state governments had no excuse not to pay civil servants above the N70,000 minimum wage, in light of rising cost of living crisis and increase in federal allocation to all levels of government.

Director General of NECA, Adewale Smatt-Oyerinde, made the statement during an interview on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief on Tuesday. He said the increased in revenue from the Federation Account had flawed the argument of some states about their inability to pay.

The NECA boss during the interview said, “So, no state really has an excuse in the context of the current reality to stay at that ?70,000, especially with people struggling with the price of petrol. While many states are still doing a lot with the CNG buses, we think more still needs to be done.

“A lot still needs to be done with the context of food security and shelter. Once you deal with that, the conversation would not really be about minimum wage because the quantum of that ?70,000 will be able to buy enough for an average household. So, it’s not about the quantum, it’s about what exactly the ?70,000 can buy.”

He stressed that any measure aimed at reducing the pain of workers, as key drivers of the economy, would boost their productivity

“While we are not directly involved in the core, the real dynamics of the state – the socio-economic challenges that they have, it is important to also state that the workers, either in the public and private sector, are very key drivers of the economy of any state and a very key driver of even the private sector.

“Whatever will improve productivity will increase motivation, especially within the context of ongoing reforms.

”You know, if you are hungry, or if you’re not really composed, you’re hungry, you have issues with shelter, you have issues with transport, hardly would you be productive at work,” he said.

“So if you see it from that perspective, you realise then it becomes important for you to address the issues that concern that engine.

“That’s the perception of the private sector because the workers in the private sector are quite critical to productivity, critical to growth of the private sector, and that is the perception we have, that workers are important, then let’s treat them so, as the ILO said workers are not commodities,” he added.