Nigerian Government Begins 40% Pay Rise For Workers, Excludes Doctors, Lecturers

Only the 144,766 federal civil servants under the Consolidated Public Service Salary Structure will benefit from the new 40 per cent peculiar allowance introduced by the Federal Government.

This implies that other workers under the employment of the Federal Government but operating under different salary structures will not benefit.

For instance, university workers, who are under the Consolidated University Academic Salary Structure, and medical doctors, who work for the Federal Government, will also not benefit from the pay rise as they are under the Consolidated Medical Salary Scale.

Other categories of federal workers who will not benefit from the peculiar allowance are nurses, non-academic workers in tertiary institutions, the police and members of the armed forces, among others.

In a memo obtained by our correspondent on Saturday, the National Salaries Income and Wages Commission headed by Ekpo Nta noted that only 144,766 staff members of the federal civil service under the CONPSS salary structure would be paid.

In a breakdown attached to the memo, the commission stated that a total of 144,766 staff members would benefit from the payment.

The Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, had disclosed that the Federal Government approved a pay raise for civil servants in the country.

He added that the pay rise had been included in the 2023 budget, noting that it would take effect from January 1, 2023.

Ngige described the pay raise as a peculiar allowance for civil servants in view of the current economic reality and it was meant to help government workers to cushion the effects of rising inflation, rising cost of living, and hikes in transportation fare, housing and electricity tariffs.

-Punch