FG to begin payment of new minimum wage in April – Newstrends
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FG to begin payment of new minimum wage in April

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FG to begin payment of new minimum wage in April

The Federal Government on Thursday said a new minimum wage regime would come into effect on April 1, 2024.

The Minister of Information and National Orientation, Idris Mohammed, who disclosed this in an interview in Abuja, said the current N30,000 minimum wage would expire at the end of March 2024.

Mohammed said this on Thursday as an analysis of the 2024 –2026 Fiscal Framework budgets by our correspondents indicated that the Federal Government would spend N24.66tn on salaries in 2024, 2025, and 2026.

Following the removal of the fuel subsidy by President Bola Tinubu on May 29, 2023, the Federal Government agreed to pay N35,000 to each of its workers to cushion the effect of the subsidy removal.

But the organised Labour insisted that the N35,000 wage award was a temporary measure, adding that the minimum wage should be reviewed in 2024.

The Federal Government’s team and the Joint National Public Service Negotiating Council on October 18, 2019, agreed on the implementation of the N30,00 minimum wage after months of negotiations.

However, Labour unions on Thursday confirmed that they had started a negotiation process with the Federal Government, adding that based on the country’s labour law, the minimum wage should be reviewed every five years.

The Nigeria Labour Congress National President, Joe Ajaero, recently said, “It is open knowledge that the review of the national minimum wage is a matter of the law which is expected to happen in 2024.”

On his part, the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed, told The PUNCH that the improved take-home pay was meant to replace the temporary palliative measure put in place by the government to ameliorate the hardship caused by the fuel subsidy removal.

New wage regime

He said, “Certainly, there is a new wage regime that will come in on April 1, 2024. That is why these palliatives were targeted so they would cushion economic hardship before then. In our negotiation with Labour, we said that the wage issue was not something one could just fix. A committee that will also involve Labour itself will work on it.

“The committee is being constituted and we are talking to Labour about it. And by the time this current wage regime expires by the end of March, we will expect that a new wage will begin by April. It is in this wage regime that we will now have a proper salary structure for workers across the length and breadth of Nigeria. We expect that the private sector and state governors will also do the same.”

A top official of the NLC, in an interview with The PUNCH, said the organised Labour had initiated talks with the government

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He said, “By April 1, 2024, the current minimum wage will expire. We have all agreed to set up a national wage negotiation committee, and that the committee should comprise all parties.’’

Also, the Head of Information of the NLC, Benson Upah, in an interview with The PUNCH said, “The new minimum wage is to come into effect next year.”

N24.66tn for salaries

As the organised Labour demands a new minimum wage, an analysis of the 2024 –2026 Fiscal Framework shows that the Federal Government intends to spend 29.18 per cent of its total budgets for 2024, 2025, and 2026 on salaries, overheads, and pensions.

The total amount budgeted for these three items amounts to N24.66tn; 29.18 per cent of the N84.50tn budgeted for the three years.

With anticipated salary increases from 2024 amid worsening economic conditions, personnel costs, and the two others are expected to jump by 8.51 per cent from the amount (N7.36tn) budget in 2023 to N7.99tn in 2024.

It is then expected to rise by 2.41 per cent to N8.18tn in 2025, and then by 3.77 per cent to N8.49tn in 2026. The amount pales when compared to the N23.37tn (27.65 per cent of its total budget) the government intends to spend on capital expenditure in the period under review.

This signifies the continuation of a culture of high overheads at the expense of high fiscal deficits. As of the end of September 2023, the Federal Government had devoted 29.76 per cent (N3.78tn) of its total spending (N12.7tn) on salaries.

The amount spent on salaries is 157.14 per cent more than the N1.47tn that has been spent on capital allocations for the year.

The government said, “The actual spending was N12.7tn. Of this amount, N5.79tn was for debt service, and N3.78tn for personnel costs, including pensions.

“Only about N1.47tn (25 per cent of the pro-rata budget) has been released for MDAs’ capital expenditure as of September 2023.”

The Federal Government has about N1.5 million workers and it will review minimum wage by 2024. There are concerns that the government is operating a bloated civil service with many agencies with overlapping functions. This has led to calls for agency mergers and scrapping, where they might apply.

With salaries weighing heavily on its spending, the government, in its 2024 – 2026 fiscal framework, said, “The budget deficit is projected to be N9.18tn in 2024, i.e., N4.6tn down from N11.60tn budgeted in 2023.

“The proposed deficit represents about 50 per cent of total Federal Government’s revenues and 3.88 per cent of the estimated GDP (Gross Domestic Product ). The high projected level of fiscal deficit in 2024 is partly attributable to the proposed salary review of Federal workers across board, increased pension obligations, and higher debt service cost.

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“At 3.88 per cent, the projected level of deficit is higher than the three per cent threshold stipulated in the Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA), 2007, but significantly lower than the 2023 level of 6.11 per cent; FRA 2007, however, allows the government to exceed the 3 per cent threshold if justified by threats to national security.”

The fiscal deficit for the three years under review is expected to total N30.89tn. In June 2023, the World Bank disclosed that the Federal Government’s spending on personnel costs and debt servicing exceeded total revenues in 2022.

According to the Washington-based bank, this was the first time the Federal Government’s personnel costs and debt servicing surpassed its total revenue. It noted that the government is spending a lot on these costs, leaving little room for capital expenditure.

It declared, “Overall, the rigidity of expenditure has increased, squeezing fiscal space for the discretionary spending needed to meet development objectives.

Personnel costs and interest payments comprise a growing share of total general government expenditures (59 per cent in 2022) and for the first time in 2022 exceeded total government revenues (102 percent).”

Rising personnel cost is leaving little room for investments in infrastructure and in his budget presentation speech, President Bola Tinubu disclosed that the government would leverage the private sector to plug its capital expenditure spending holes.

He said, “In view of the limited resources available through the federal budget, we are also exploring Public Private Partnership arrangements to finance critical infrastructure.

“We, therefore, invite the private sector to partner with us to ensure that our fiscal, trade, and monetary policies, as well as our developmental programmes and projects, succeed in unlocking the latent potential of our people and other natural endowments, in line with our national aspirations.”

Recently, the Minister of Budget and National Economic Planning, Abubakar Bagudu, declared that the government was only managing to pay salaries considering its dwindling revenue sources.

The minister represented by the Director (International Cooperation), Dr Sampson Ebimaro at an event said, “Government faces enormous challenge especially now, the government is facing revenue deficit. There’s no money anywhere in the country, the government is just managing to pay salaries.

“The growth rate is very slow, and the population growth is fast pacing and increasing. unemployment is surging amid high inflation. These are issues which non-governmental organisations must take on board in helping the government to cover the space government could not cover.”

FG to begin payment of new minimum wage in April

(PUNCH)

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Edo Gov Okpebholo freezes govt accounts, reverses ministry’s name

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Edo State Governor, Monday Okpebholo

Edo Gov Okpebholo freezes govt accounts, reverses ministry’s name

Edo State Governor, Monday Okpebholo, has directed the immediate freezing of all state-owned bank accounts.

In a statement issued on Thursday by his Chief Press Secretary, Fred Itua, the governor stated that the accounts would remain frozen until further notice.

He instructed commercial banks, ministries, departments, and agencies (MDAs) to comply with the order immediately or face severe consequences.

The statement reads: “All state bank accounts with commercial banks have been frozen. Commercial banks must comply with this order and ensure that not a single naira is withdrawn from government coffers until further notice.

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“Heads of Ministries, Departments, and Agencies must ensure full compliance without delay.

“Following necessary investigations and reconciliations, the governor will take appropriate action and decide on the way forward. For now, this order remains in effect.”

Okpebholo also directed relevant agencies to revert the name of the Ministry of Roads and Bridges to its previous title, the Ministry of Works, a change made during the Godwin Obaseki administration.

“It is odd to name a government institution the Ministry of Roads and Bridges, especially when not a single bridge was built by the previous administration — not even a pedestrian bridge.

“In the coming days, we will examine further actions taken by the previous administration and make decisions that serve the best interests of the state,” the statement added.

 

Edo Gov Okpebholo freezes govt accounts, reverses ministry’s name

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Israel-Palestinian conflict: Two-state solution is a deception, says Gumi

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Prominent Islamic scholar Dr. Ahmad Mahmud Gumi

Israel-Palestinian conflict: Two-state solution is a deception, says Gumi

Prominent Islamic scholar Dr. Ahmad Mahmud Gumi has criticized the widely discussed two-state solution for the Israel-Palestine conflict, calling it a “deception.”

His remarks followed a recent summit of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Riyadh, where President Bola Tinubu and other leaders condemned Israel’s actions in Gaza and urged an end to hostilities.

In an interview with Daily Trust at his Kaduna residence, Gumi argued, “This Two-State Solution is a deception. No Israeli will allow a Palestinian to survive, and Palestinians will never allow Israel to survive.

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The only solution is to dissolve the two states and create a democratically electable region.”

Gumi commended the OIC’s support for Palestine, noting that Muslims and Arabs worldwide increasingly see the treatment of Palestinians as “genocide” and accuse Israel of human rights abuses.

He also called for a return to the pre-1948 structure, where Palestinians, Jews, and Christians lived together, suggesting a single, inclusive state that allows peaceful coexistence.

“When I hear people talking about Two-State Solutions, I know they are just deceiving themselves,” Gumi added, advocating for a unified region where people of all faiths can live together, similar to the multi-faith coexistence seen in countries like the United States.

 

Israel-Palestinian conflict: Two-state solution is a deception, says Gumi

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Court sacks Ondo LP candidate, two days to governorship poll

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Olusola Ebiseni

Court sacks Ondo LP candidate, two days to governorship poll

The Labour Party candidature of Olusola Ebiseni for the upcoming gubernatorial election in Ondo State has been nullified.

The nullification follows the sacking of Ebiseni by the Court of Appeal, sitting in Abuja, on Wednesday.

The governorship election of the southwest State will hold on Saturday, 16 November 2024.

The judgement disqualifying Ebiseni was unanimously delivered by the three members of the panel and read out by the chairman of the panel, Justice Adebukola Banjoko.

The judgment granted the prayer of the Labour Party who preferred the case against Ebiseni.

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Justice Banjoko held that, “the appeal marked CA/ABJ/CV/1172/2024 brought by the Labour Party against Chief Olusola Ebiseni and two others is allowed.”

Justice Banjoko further stated that the Certified True Copy of the judgment would be provided to the parties involved in the appeal as soon as possible for their review.

Recall that Justice Emeka Nwite of the Federal High Court in Abuja had ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission to accept and recognize Olusola Ebiseni and Ezekiel Awude as the Labour Party’s governorship and deputy governorship candidates for the November 16 Ondo State governorship elections.

Justice Nwite confirmed that the second primary election conducted by the Labour Party, which resulted in Ebiseni and Awude being selected as candidates, was valid and should be upheld by INEC.

However, the appellate court has now overturned the judgment of the trial court’s judgment.

 

Court sacks Ondo LP candidate, two days to governorship poll

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