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

The minister was featured on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme on Wednesday where he revealed that the salary increment became important given the current economic reality of the country, however adding that the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), is yet to approve the percentage used for the increment. “The Federal Government is looking at giving people in the public service a pay raise to take care of the increased cost of living,” he said. “In the Presidential Committee on Salaries, we have done something for the civil servants for those who are on Consolidated Public Service Salary Structure (CONPSS) and some corporations, MDAs that are on that CONPSS. CONPSS is the salary scale for civil servants. “We put a percentage for the President to approve, we have approved it at our own committee level. We said it should take effect from January 1, 2023.”

According to the minister, the current administration has made provision for the increment of civil workers’ salaries in the 2023 budget. During the interview, the minister also spoke on the naira redesign policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), saying the policy has curbed insecurity and vote buying during the 2023 general elections. He, however, admitted that the implementation of the policy was not smooth.