In what appears to be good news to members of the National Youth Service Corp (NYSC), the Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed, has disclosed that Corp members will now receive the new minimum wage as their monthly allowance.
The minister was quoted as saying “We have looked at the report and what we are working on now is how we can finance it.
“Apart from the increase of the minimum wage from N18,000 to N30,000, there is also a consequential adjustment that we have to negotiate with the labor unions,” she said.
Ahmed noted that negotiations would involve determining how much increase every other employee above the minimum wage would get.
“It could be a flat amount or a proportion, but the other aspect that is clear is that there would be an increase for the National Youth Service Corps as well because, by the Act, they should earn at least the minimum wage and the NYSC also has to increase to that N30, 000.
She affirmed that because negotiations with labor have not been concluded, she cannot give the details of what the ministry is projecting.
Ahmed concluded that the sum of N649.43bn would be distributed to state governments as the final trench of the Paris Club debt.