Maiduguri – Borno State Government on Tuesday said it had not implemented the N18,000 minimum wage for workers in five out of the state’s 27 local government councils because of financial constraints.
Alhaji Maman Durkuwa, the state’s deputy governor, stated this to newsmen in Maiduguri while reacting to the appeal by the state’s Nigeria Labor Congress (NLC) chapter for government to implement the minimum wage in all local governments.
Durkuwa said the number of workers in the five local government areas was so large that the resources were not sufficient to pay them.
“We could not implement the minimum wage in five local government areas, namely Hawul, Biu, Chibok, Askira-Uba, and Maiduguri Metropolitan Council (MMC) due to financial constraints.
“It is noteworthy to state that workers are paid from the monthly federal allocations to their local governments.
“The problem is that the number of workers in the five local government areas is so large that the resources are not enough to pay them the minimum wage,’’ he said.
The deputy governor said the state government was, however, looking at the possibilities of assisting the workers with some cash when the economic situation of the country improved.
“The state government has embarked on a verification exercise to determine the actual size of the workforce in these councils.
“We are optimistic that at the end of the verification, some ghost workers will be uncovered and removed from the payroll, so we can implement the minimum wage there,’’ Durkuwa said.
He stressed that the government was also unhappy with the living conditions of the affected workers.
“The cardinal principles of this administration are based on workers welfare, that is why Borno was among the forerunners in the implementation of the N18, 000 minimum wage,’’ Durkuwa said.
He said that government had since implemented the minimum wage in 22 out of the 27 local councils in the state. (NAN)
BASG says non- implementation of minimum wage in 5 LGAs due to financial constraints
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