About 20 Nigerian states have not yet implemented the N70,000 minimum wage for local government workers and teachers. Some states have started payments but excluded local staff. Teachers in the FCT have gone on strikes, demanding wage implementation and arrears payment.

The National President of the Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees, Alhaji Haruna Kankara, stated on Sunday that approximately 20 states have yet to implement the new N70,000 minimum wage for local government workers and primary school teachers. These states include Yobe, Gombe, Zamfara, Kaduna, Imo, Ebonyi, Cross River, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja, Borno, and several others. Kankara shared this information in response to questions from The PUNCH regarding the status of the minimum wage implementation for local government workers and primary school teachers.

After the Minimum Wage Act of 2024 was signed into law, about 20 states began implementing the new wage law. States that have begun implementation include Lagos, Rivers, Bayelsa, Niger, Enugu, Akwa Ibom, Abia, Adamawa, Anambra, Jigawa, Gombe, Ogun, Kebbi, Ondo, Kogi, and others. President Bola Tinubu signed the N70,000 minimum wage bill into law on July 29, 2024, following months of negotiations with labor unions. The new monthly wage represents a 133 percent increase, from N30,000 to N70,000, amid the country’s ongoing economic challenges.

Kankara provided an update on the implementation of the law, emphasizing that around 20 states have not yet begun paying the new minimum wage. He pointed out that some of these states have started paying the new wage to state workers but have left out local government workers and primary school teachers. He further mentioned that while some states had promised to implement the new wage, they had failed to fulfill those promises, although he remains hopeful that the situation will soon be resolved.

Regarding local government autonomy, Kankara explained that the Central Bank has not yet communicated with local governments about opening bank accounts, which is a key demand of the union. He emphasized that the union has been requesting the Central Bank of Nigeria to issue a circular permitting local governments to open accounts, but this has yet to occur.

Seun Oyinlade, the Kwara State President of NULGE, stated that the state government began paying the N70,000 minimum wage to state workers in October 2024. However, he lamented that heavy taxes imposed by the state government had reduced workers’ take-home pay. "Although the N70,000 minimum wage for local government staff has been implemented since October 2024, the state’s heavy taxes have significantly reduced our members' take-home pay," Oyinlade said. When the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) in the state appealed for a tax reduction, the government only approved a three-month tax relief, which ended in December 2024. Since then, tax deductions have resumed.

Muritala Olayinka, the NLC state chairman, confirmed that the state government had started paying the new minimum wage to all categories of workers in Kwara. He mentioned that although workers had complained about high taxation, the NLC had written to the governor to extend the tax holiday, and they were waiting for a response.

In Sokoto, a teacher confirmed that the state government had implemented the new minimum wage for both teachers and local government workers, with payments starting in January. Abdullahi Umar, a teacher in the state, stated that although the implementation was delayed due to the FAAC allocation, they had received the January and February payments a few weeks ago.

An LG worker in Sokoto, Usman Abdullah, corroborated Umar's statement, noting that N50,000 was added to their old salary, although the previous N30,000 minimum wage had not been implemented at the local government level. “They added N50,000 to our salary, but the last minimum wage of N30,000 was not implemented at the local government level,” Abdullah remarked.

Data obtained from the National Union of Teachers (NUT) revealed that some teachers have still not received the N30,000 minimum wage from 2019. States such as Zamfara, Yobe, Taraba, Sokoto, Niger, Kogi, Kaduna, Imo, Gombe, Cross River, Borno, Benue, Adamawa, and Abia have yet to implement the 2019 N30,000 minimum wage for teachers. Some local government teachers are now calling for federal intervention. One teacher, who requested anonymity for fear of victimization, expressed frustration over the lack of benefits from the previous minimum wage. "For us in Yobe, we haven't even benefited from the previous minimum wage. How can we expect to receive the N70,000 if we didn't even get N30,000?" the teacher appealed.

In the FCT, a teacher from the Bwari Area Council spoke about the neglect of local government workers and teachers by the FCT Administration. The teacher, speaking on condition of anonymity, mentioned that teachers had gone on strike multiple times due to the lack of implementation of the N70,000 national minimum wage by the area councils. In March 2025, teachers in public primary schools in the FCT went on their fourth strike in four months, disrupting the second term exams across the six area councils. They cited the failure to implement the new minimum wage as the reason for the strike.

The teachers issued a communique after their emergency meeting, expressing disappointment over the payment process and highlighting the impact of continued financial strain on teachers. The union outlined several demands, including immediate implementation of the national minimum wage for February salaries, payment of salary arrears, and the disbursement of six months’ worth of minimum wage arrears. They also called for an additional 40 percent peculiar allowance and other salary increases.

The Secretary-General of the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria, Mohammed Abubakar, told The PUNCH that state commissioners of finance were impeding the direct payment of allocations to councils, which has negatively affected the finances of local government areas.