Osinbajo reveals how FG will increase minimum wage

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has revealed how the Federal Government would increase the minimum wage of civil servants.

He said the government was considering increasing the remuneration package, especially bonuses of certain government agencies, instead of reviewing wages across board.

This was contained in a transcript made available to newsmen in Abuja yesterday by Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to the Vice President, Laolu Akande.

Osinbajo spoke during a session titled, “Conversation with the Vice-President” at the 2017 Nigerian Bar Association National Conference held in Lagos on Monday.

He said though the issue of better pay for workers was a good suggestion, the government was “in a bind of sorts.”

He further explained that “while it was correct that the country needed a more efficient civil service that would be paid more, there was also the need to increase revenues.”

Osinbajo added, “Sometimes, it is a chicken and egg situation because in order to increase revenues, we need to increase remuneration.

“I think that what we are probably going to end up doing is what we have done with some of the parastatals; in other words, identifying certain government services that must be remunerated differently in order to increase efficiency. One of the revenue generating agencies, for instance, is the Federal Inland Revenue Service.

“Improving remuneration, especially bonuses, would do a lot of good. That we saw happen in Lagos with the Lagos Inland Revenue Service, where because there were bonuses, there was improvement in revenue and reform.

“People were able to do better, even in our judicial system. Because we paid better; we remunerated better, people were able to improve.”

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