The Minister of State for Labour, Employment and Productivity, Mr. Festus Keyamo, SAN, has explained why the Federal Government can afford a new pay rise for civil servants.
According to The PUNCH, he stated this in an exclusive interview while reacting to the last minute move by the administration of Major-General Muhammadu Buhari (retd) to introduce a pay rise for the 144,766 federal civil servants under the Consolidated Public Service Salary Structure.
Findings revealed that purported increase has continued to generate several criticisms as certain finance experts described the introduction of the allowance as a “trap for the incoming administration.”
But Keyamo said, “The new package for workers cannot be unreasonable under our present circumstances. In fact, Nigerian workers deserve more. The issue is the funding. I think when the new government removes subsidy and explores some others means to fund our budgets, the government can afford it.”
According to reports, CONPSS employees received perculiar allowances in addition to their salary for the month of April, as well as payment for arrears from January to March 2023.
Recall that the Minister of Labour, Chris Ngige, stated that the salary increase was part of the measures put in place by the federal government to help workers manage the effects of rising inflation, the rising cost of living, hikes in transportation fare, housing and electricity tariffs.
