By Ikugbadi Oluwasegun
Kano State Government has approved N71, 000 as minimum wage for the state civil servants.
Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf disclosed this while the receiving the Public Service Negotiation Committee Report headed by the state Head of Civil Service at his office today, said the new minimum wage will be effectivefrom November 2024.
A statement issued on Tuesday by Sunusi Bature Dawakin Tofa, spokesman of the governor, quoted Governor Yusuf saying “I will like to emphasize that Kano state has one of the largest workforces in Nigeria, reflective of our population and specific local needs, together with our financial constraints, including the low Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) we inherited, we have decided to implement the new national minimum wage of N71,000.00,” he assured.
Governor Yusuf said that implementation of minimum wage will increase the state monthly salary obligations by over N6bn, adding that additional N7bn is needed for the 44 local government councils.
“The governor emphasised that the approval followed a courageous by present administration exemplifiescommitment to social justice, economicgrowth, and enhanced living standards for the state workers and citizens.
“He disclosed that present government inherited an average monthly IGR of only N2bn, lamenting that “by comparison, states such as Lagos generate an average of N54.3bn, Rivers N14.5 bn , Ogun N10.1bn and Delta N7.1 bn.
“This disparity highlights the urgent need for us to reform our domestic revenue generation strategies to meet our obligations to the people of Kano,” the governor emphasised.
He charged the beneficiaries “to enhance service delivery, continuously seek innovative solutions to improve publicservices and streamline processes, foster collaboration, appealing to them to work seamlessly together to ensure transparency and accountability.
“Our administration is deeply committed to prioritizing the welfare of our civil servants, who tirelessly provide efficient, effective, and quality services toour people despite limited financial resources,” he noted.
The governor lamented that following the 2023 elections, the previous administration undertook a large-scale hiring initiative whereby 13,000 individuals employed to the civilservice without due diligence.
Despite that, Governor Yusuf said, “the present administration in recognizing the importance of essential human resources in serving our citizens, we formed a committee to review these hires and ultimately retained over 12,000 of them in the state civil service.”
“He urged civil servants to intensify their dedication to efficiency, productivity and effectiveness, stressing that “let’s harness our collective strength to drive transformative change to achieve this greatness in the service.Alhaji Abdullahi Musa , the Head of Civil Service, who presented the report had said that the committee has done it best to ensure appropriate implementation of the new wage without difficulties.
On his part, Comrades Kabiru Inuwa thanked the governor for good welfare being provided to civil servants as well as approving the minimum wage despite the state civil servants are the most populous in the country.