The Federal Government has called on state governors to start paying the new national minimum wage of N70,000 if they haven’t done so yet.

The appeal was made by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Senator George Akume, on Monday.

Akume spoke with reporters after a meeting with President Bola Tinubu at the State House in Abuja.

Akume said that the federal government is fully committed to ensuring workers receive fair pay.

Akume explained that President Tinubu had prioritized the minimum wage issue early in his administration. According to him, he set up a special committee that included representatives from the federal government, state governors, and the private sector to review and agree on a fair wage. This effort led to the approval of the N70,000 minimum wage.

While some states have already started paying the new wage—and a few even offer more than N70,000—others are still lagging behind. Akume praised the states that have already implemented the increase and encouraged others to quickly follow suit.

He said, “The issue of the new minimum wage has always been central to the thinking of the government of President Bola Tinubu, and that was why he quickly put in place a tripartite arrangement to look at all the issues, and this was properly carried out.

“The governors were represented, the federal government was represented, the organised private sector was also part of it. So we arrived at the new minimum wage.

“We are very satisfied with it and some state governments have started implementing. Others have even gone beyond N70,000. So I believe that there’s no problem with that whatsoever.

“We applaud those who have started. Those who have not started, we just want to appeal to them to start the payment”, he further said.

States already paying the new minimum wage include Ogun, Ekiti, Sokoto, Kebbi, Osun, Enugu, Borno, Zamfara, Kogi, Kwara, Gombe, Kano, Taraba, Delta, Rivers, Jigawa, Abia, Edo, Lagos, Adamawa, and Akwa Ibom.