The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA), has commenced full payment of N30, 000 new minimum wage to civil servants working within the nation’s capital.
The Director, FCT department of Treasury Ismaila Ishiaku, revealed this while speaking to journalists in Abuja.
He said the move followed agreement reached between labour and government.
The Director who indicated that January salaries would hit the accounts of workers this week, said the move by the FCT administration to pay minimum wage arrears at once, was to enable workers start the year on a financially stable note.
He further called on workers to re-double their efforts in the discharge of their duties, while assuring civil servants in the FCTA of the ministers’ commitment of timely payment of salaries and other welfare packages due to them.
He said: “The minimum wage was to start, effective from April 2019 but its implementation began in December, and because the directive from the federal government came after we in the FCT had already paid the December salary (because we pay very early), we calculated arrears in the second week of January.
“We calculated the arrears from April to December. In other words, we have paid for December. So, we have paid the minimum wage from April to December last year, because the effective date for the new Minimum Wage based on the agreement with labour was April 2019.
“The arrears we cleared was about N4 billion. Now, we have also prepared the January salary with the minimum wage. So, FCT is on the move. There is no issue of backlog and the payment was not in installments. We paid everything at once.”
