FG set to increase civil servants, public workers salary soon - Ngige

The Nigerian government has said it will soon announce salary adjustments for civil servants and public officials.

The measure is to align with the current economic realities in the country and the increasing prices of consumer goods.

The Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige said the Presidential Committee on Salaries is reviewing salaries with a plan to announce its decision early next year.

Ngige disclosed this to reporters covering the State House in Abuja after a closed-door meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari.

According to a Punch report, Ngige had hinted that the Nigerian government would review the salaries of civil servants upwards to ease the effect of inflation.

Per Ngige, the Presidential Committee on Salaries is working together with the National Salaries Incomes and Wage Commission to adjust workers’ salaries, saying the commission is empowered by an Act establishing them to fix salaries, wages and emoluments, reports say.

Ngige said: “So they have the matrix to do the evaluation, so they are working with the Presidential Committee on Salaries chaired by the finance minister and I’m the co-chair to look at the demands of the workers. Outside this, I said discussions on that evaluation are ongoing.”

Ngige said the new salary would become effective in the new year. He said: “Majorly, I came to brief Mr President. You know the year is coming to an end and we have to look at 2022 exhaustively. Part of my ministry has to do with labour issues.

First and foremost, we look at the employment situation in the country and what we have achieved and what we have not achieved. We also had a briefing on productivity viz-a-viz the various industrial disputes we had in 2022.”

Ngige decribed 2022 as the year of industrial disputes and refused to comment if ASUU and over varsity lecturers may benefit from the proposed salary increase.