By Adeyinka Adeniran
The Oyo State Government has approved a minimum wage of ₦80,000 for the state workforce.
The Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Prince Dotun Oyelade, in a statement said the Technical Committee set up by the State government recommended and got approval from Governor Seyi Makinde for the implementation of the new salary scale.
He added that the new scale will be implemented as soon as the consequential adjustments process is completed by the committee which comprises of government and labour top officials.
Prince Oyelade recalled that only last month, a Federal Government Agency, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), in its latest employment statistics published for 2024, rated Oyo state as the most worker friendly state in the whole of Southern Nigeria owing to a significant decline in the state’s unemployment rate following a series of high-pitched employment of workers into various sectors of the state.
The Commissioner also emphasized that the state pays its workers salaries on the 25th of every month since Governor Makinde came into office in 2019.
He also said the governor started paying the previous ₦30,000 minimum wage from inception over four years ago, including consistent payment of pensions, gratuities and 13th month salary for both workers and pensioners alike.
He noted that since November 2023, Governor Makinde has been paying ₦25,000 to its workers and ₦15,000 to its pensioners as a welfare wage award.
The Information Commissioner explained that the Seyi Makinde administration started paying the wage award to cushion the effect of the fuel subsidy removal and has also been consistent with the payment for over a year even till date.
Prince Oyelade reiterated that the Governor has paid the backlog of gratuities from 2008-2015 for Pensioners with increase in gratuity payment for Pensioners at both the Local Government Staff Pensions Board and those paid by the Ministry of Establishment and Training.
He added that the Governor has also put back into payroll, Pensioners whose names were removed by the immediate past administration and giving all pensioners annual Christmas/New Year Chicken Bonus.
