The Kano state government has stopped the payment of N30,000 minimum wage to its workers, reverting to N18,000 — the previous wage scale.
Following pressure from organised labour, President Muhammadu Buhari in April 2019 signed the new minimum wage act into law, which stipulates N30,000 as the minimum wage.
In December 2019, Kano government agreed with its workers to commence the payment of the new minimum wage, while arrears of April-November, 2019, were to be settled in instalments.
But Salihu Tanko-Yakasai, spokesperson to Abdullahi Ganduje, governor of the state, told TheCable that owing to the recession caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the state is unable to continue paying N30,000.
“The state government has reverted to the initial minimum pay due to the recession. What we are getting now as a government has reduced, and we can’t afford to pay the N30,000 minimum wage,” he said.
Sources in the state civil service said the government did not inform them of the development.
“We saw the deduction in our November and then December pay, and nobody told us anything,” a source said, adding: “The pensioners also had deduction in their pay and no reason has been given for this.”
The COVID-19 pandemic has taken a toll on Nigeria’s economy.
In November, Nigeria slid into its worst economic recession in over three decades.
Like Kano, Gombe in March, 2020 reverted to N18,000 from N30,000.