PUNCH
As the nation awaits the new minimum wage promised to be sent to the National Assembly by President Bola Tinubu, the burden of implementing the minimum wage may make many states bankrupt.
The Federal Executive Council, at its meeting last Tuesday, stepped down a memorandum on the report of the tripartite committee on the new minimum wage, to allow for more consultations among the federal and state governments on one part, the private sector and the labour unions on the other part.
Last Thursday, Tinubu met with the governors at the National Economic Council meeting chaired by Vice President Kashim Shettima. The meeting, which was expected to deliberate on the national minimum wage, was, however, silent on whether or not it considered the issue.
Also last Thursday, the Southern Governors’ Forum released the communiqué of its meeting held in Abeokuta, Ogun State, with the governors asking that each state should negotiate minimum wage with its workforce.
The labour unions have, however, reacted to the stance of the Ni¬geria Governors’ Forum over their overbearing influence on the minimum wage negotia¬tions.
In a document, titled, “Analysis of State FAAC inflows and state expenditure profile,” of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum Secretariat, the NGF report warned that implementing the new minimum wage could push states into bankruptcy due to increased recurrent expenditure.
According to the report, the burden of recurrent expenditure already left Abia, Ekiti, Gombe, Imo, Katsina, Kogi, Oyo, Plateau, Sokoto, Yobe, and Zamfara in deficit in 2022.
The report predicted that if the recurrent expenditure increased by 50 per cent, 13 states would fall into deficit, with only 10 remaining financially stable.
The tripartite committee’s recommendation of a N62,000 minimum wage would necessitate over a 100 per cent increase from the current N30,000, potentially leaving only a few states like Anambra, Bayelsa, Borno, Ebonyi, Gombe, Imo, Jigawa, Kaduna, Lagos, and Rivers with positive net revenues, based on the 2022 fiscal data.
A net revenue is the deduction of recurrent expenditure from the total revenue of the state. When it is positive, it means a surplus, but when negative, there is a deficit.
Also, the total revenue of states is calculated from the monthly revenue from the Federal Account Allocation Committee, internally generated revenue, aids and grants and constituency development funds.
