The Governor, who gave the assurance at the weekend in Ilorin during an interactive session with journalists, said the new minimum wage of N18,000 was desirable for the Nigerian workers.  

He described the new minimum wage as one of the best things that has happened in recent time in Nigeria.  

The State Government Alhaji Ahmed noted, already has a workable platform to implement the minimum wage for its workers, adding that government is still working on the modality of its implementation.  

Good as the new minimum wage is, the governor however called on the Federal Government to urgently review the current revenue sharing formula so that States and Local Governments would be financially buoyant to pay the new wage without an adverse effect on any of its services. 

"N18,000 minimum wage is desirable for the Nigerian workers or even more but we should first look at the capacity of each State to pay viz-a-viz the revenue allocation", the governor stated.  

According to him, the average monthly allocation to the State from the Federation Account was N2.3 billion with salaries gulping about N1.2 billion, pointing out that with the new minimum wage; average monthly wage bill was expected to rise to about N2.1 billion.  

What this portends in effect, the governor argued, was that there would be less money to carry on with other aspects of development, a situation which he said was unacceptable, hence the urgent need by the Federal Government to augment.  

He, therefore, expressed government appreciation to the leadership of the Labour Union and the entire Civil Servants in the State for their patience and understanding on the issue of minimum wage, assuring that it was promptly being addressed.  

Abdulwahab Oba
Chief Press Secretary to the Kwara State Governor
10/07/2011