The Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) has expressed willingness of members to pay the new minimum wage as passed by the National Assembly.
The Chairman of the forum and the Governor of Ekiti State, Dr John Kayode Fayemi made this disclosure while answering questions from newsmen at the end of governors meeting held at NGF Secretariat in Abuja.
Fayemi described as a “settled matter” the decision to pay the minimum wage by governors.
Fayemi denied the allegation by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) that many governors were yet to commence negotiations with their state chapters’ union over the implementation, saying negotiations have started in each state.
“Governors have all indicated without any equivocation that we subscribe to the Act of Parliament that has been passed on the N30,000 minimum wage. There is no debate, we have accepted that,” Fayemi said.
“The negotiation team you are talking about is about the consequential impact and each state has started that process.
“If the NLC is not fully aware of the status of the negotiations in the various state we will be happy to share the information available to us with them.”
Fayemi also stated that there is no decision by the NGF to backtrack the minimum wage even though not all states can afford it but they will all pay the N30,000 and some might pay more.
“However, fingers are not equal, states have to negotiate in terms of the consequential implementation, there may be states that are in a position to pay N50,000, “ Fayemi said.
“What we can tell you is that no state will pay less than, N30,000 when we finally get to that point.”