
By Ankeli Emmanuel, Sokoto
Sokoto state governor, Ahmed Aliyu has approved the commencement of the payment of the N70,000 new national minimum wage to the state workers,.

This was confirmed by the Chief Press Secretary to the state governor Abubakar Bawa on Sunday in a press release he signed and made available to ‘SMARTS NEWS’ in Sokoto where he assured that workers will begin to get the increased salaries from Monday 27th.
According to Bawa, “‘the payment of the new minimum wage will cover the state civil servants, local governments and Local Government Education Authority staff across the state”.
Continuing, Bawa said the governor’s approval of new national minimum wage payment was not only in compliance with the federal government directive but also in fulfillment of his promise of improved welfare.
Part of the release read, “With the commencement of the payment of this new national minimum wage, we expect a renewed commitment, hard work, punctuality and above all, seriousness from our civil servants”.
While promising to sustain the prompt payment of salaries from the 19th to the 22nd of every month, the governor assured that his administration will continue to remain workers’-friendly.
Bawa further divulged that the state government under governor Ahmed Aliyi has set aside N500 million monthly to pay the backlog of unpaid gratuity, in additional to another monthly N300 million to pay those that retired from 2023 to date.
“The idea according to government, is to ensure that by the time the present administration completes its tenure, no civil servant would be owed any gratuity by the state government”. Bawa enthused.