No state will pay less than N30,000 – Govs

36 States of the federation say they cannot backtrack on their decision to pay the N30,000 minimum wage, describing it as “a settled matter”.

The Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) and Governor of Ekiti State, Dr Kayode Fayemi, said this on Wednesday night while fielding questions from journalists after a meeting at their Secretariat in Abuja.

Fayemi said what remained was the need for States to renegotiate in terms of the consequential implication since “fingers are not equal”.

He said, “Minimum wage was not on our agenda because it is a settled matter and governors have all indicated without any equivocation that we subscribed to the Act of parliament that has been passed on the national minimum wage of N30,000. There is no debate. We have accepted that. The negotiation thing you are talking is about the consequential impact of the minimum wage on the higher level. Each state has started that process.

“If the Nigeria Labour Congress is not fully aware of the status of the negotiation in the various states, we will be happy to share the information available to us with them. But as far as we are concern, there is no decision from the Governors Forum to backtrack, we are not backtracking on the minimum wage. “However, fingers are not equal, states have to renegotiate in terms of the consequential implication for the others. Some states maybe in the position to pay N50,000, what we can tell you is that no state will pay less than N30,000 when we finally get to that point.”

The NGF chairman said the meeting with a delegation of the Conference of Speakers of the State House of Assembly was on some constitutional matters.

Fayemi, who read a communiqué issued at the end of their meeting, said the forum received an update from the Auditor General of the Federation (AuGF) and the World Bank team on the State Transparency, Accountability and Sustainability (SFTAS) on the Independent Verification Assessment (IVA) exercise conducted across states.

He said the IVA team highlighted among others, activities of the FY2018 Annual Appraisal Assessment to be concluded in January 2020 while the transfer of 2018 grants to States will take place in March 2020.

He said as SFTAS implementing partner, the NGF Secretariat would carry out regional sensitization workshops in March 2020 and kick- start the provision of technical assistance to States through customized just-in, time advisory and training, exchange visits and peer learning events.

He added that the forum also received an update on the health priorities, especially Universal Healthcare, Nutrition and on the Polio Eradication Initiative, including the Seattle Declaration, adding that governors reiterated their commitment to an effective implementation and tracking of the Seattle commitment.

The governors received a briefing on the UK-Africa Investment Summit 2020 from the UK Foreign Office led by Mrs Harriet Thompson, the UK Deputy High Commissioner to Nigeria.

The summit, according to the communiqué, will be hosted by the UK Prime Minister and will bring together businesses, governments and international institutions to showcase investment opportunities in Africa in January 2020.

Governors expressed optimism for deeper opportunities in various sectors of the economy including agriculture, infrastructure, manufacturing, health, education and financial services; and committed to strengthening the Forum’s partnership with the UK’s CDC Group and the Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG) to help bridge relations between Nigerian and UK companies.

Governor Fayemi said the forum also received a presentation from the Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning, on the Geo-Referenced Infrastructure and Demographic Data for Development (GRID3) programme in Nigeria – a programme designed to strengthen the application of geospatial data for evidence-based decision making in the county.

“The National Coordinator of GRID3, Inuwa Yau, also highlighted several applications of the programme in priority areas of government including food security, health coverage, financial inclusion, survey and demographics and education.

“State governors commended the Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Flaming for coordinating the GRID3 programme which will be central to development-planning going forward.

“Members pledged to work with the Ministry, by providing the right institutional arrangements in all States to ensure that each State supports the generation and management of geospatial data.

“This will ensure that State governments have the right information in identifying where people live and how critical services can be most equitably and effectively allocated,” the communiqué added.