Prepare to Pay New Minimum Wage, Osinbajo Tells Governors
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has called on governors to look for ways of generating revenue through internal sources to be able to pay the new minimum wages to workers.
Osinbajo who spoke during a three day induction of new and returning governors organized by the Nigerian Guild of Editors warned that the states should not expect bail out from the federal government.
He said, “We have in the past three years, intervened through loans, bailouts and Paris Club refunds to the tune of well over N1.1trillion. This represents the highest amount of federal government’s extra statutory allocations and interventions to states in Nigeria’s history and we are proud to say that there were no discriminations along party lines,”
“We must more effectively collect Value Added Tax and increase our agricultural output, work with the federal government to make broadband infrastructure available all over the country, so our young people anywhere in the country can do jobs from anywhere in the world, from their villages in any corner of Nigeria.”
He warned the states to be careful in their efforts to raise revenue through taxation.
He said, “If a state is charging for right-of-way from communications companies and is hindering the laying of cables and other broadband infrastructure as an IGR measure, permit me to say that that will be penny wise and pound foolish. To tap into the millions of jobs in technology and other services that a country like India, for example, has tapped into, requires broadband infrastructure across the country.”
Meanwhile the Governor of Zamfara State and Chairman of Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF), Alhaji Abdulaziz Yari expressed fear that Nigeria will be returning to serious economic crisis except the economy is diversified before 2026.
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