The Oyo State Government has approved a new minimum wage of ₦80,000 for its workforce. The decision follows a recommendation by the Technical Committee set up by the state government, which was subsequently approved by Governor Seyi Makinde.
In a statement released on Wednesday, the State Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Dotun Oyelade, explained that the new salary scale will be implemented once the consequential adjustments process is completed.
The committee overseeing the process includes top officials from both the government and labor unions.
Oyelade also highlighted that just last month, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) published its 2024 employment statistics, which ranked Oyo State as the most worker-friendly in Southern Nigeria.
This ranking came after a significant decline in the state’s unemployment rate, attributed to the large-scale employment of workers across various sectors of the state.
“The Oyo State Government has been paying workers’ salaries on the 25th of every month since Governor Makinde took office in 2019,” Oyelade said.
He went on to note that Governor Makinde began paying the previous ₦30,000 minimum wage at the start of his tenure more than four years ago, in addition to consistent payments of pensions, gratuities, and a 13th-month salary for both workers and pensioners.
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Since November 2023, the Makinde administration has been paying a welfare wage award of ₦25,000 to workers and ₦15,000 to pensioners to mitigate the effects of the Federal Government’s fuel subsidy removal.
“The Makinde administration introduced the wage award to cushion the effects of the Federal Government’s fuel subsidy removal and has remained consistent with these payments for over a year, even to this day,” Oyelade stated.
The commissioner further mentioned that the governor had cleared the backlog of gratuities for pensioners from 2008 to 2015. He also increased gratuity payments for pensioners under both the Local Government Staff Pensions Board and those administered by the Ministry of Establishment and Training.
Additionally, Oyelade noted that the governor had reinstated pensioners whose names were removed by the previous administration and continues to provide an annual Christmas/New Year chicken bonus to all pensioners.
