DAI queries implementation plan for new minimum wage
The Nigeria Country Director of the Development Alternatives Inc. (DAI) Joe Abah has questioned government’s ability to pay the proposed new minimum wage of N30, 000. He spoke on Thursday during a presentation on Winning Strategies for Transforming the Public Service at the 50th Annual National Conference of the Chartered Institute of Personnel Management of […]
Dr. Joe Abah
The Nigeria Country Director of the Development Alternatives Inc. (DAI) Joe Abah has questioned government’s ability to pay the proposed new minimum wage of N30, 000.
He spoke on Thursday during a presentation on Winning Strategies for Transforming the Public Service at the 50th Annual National Conference of the Chartered Institute of Personnel Management of Nigeria (CIPM).
He said, “I support the increase of the minimum wage entirely, it would be interesting to see how we are going to afford it, however I am yet to see government plans on how it is going to sustain it?”
He explained that when you increase salary at the bottom level, because of pay relativity it would have to be reflected to higher levels which increase the entire wage bill.
He noted that in planning to bring about better delivery in the public service, there is need to find a balance between the resources you have and where you want to get it to transform the public services.
He noted that the fallacy in Nigeria is not the failure of implementation but in planning, adding that, “Our problem is planning and our plans do not describe how goals would be achieved with available resources.”
Beautiful plans he said are without costing or attempts to cost it would not take cognizance of available resources.
He said planning in this way cannot be implemented because it does not consider the availability of resources, noting that there is no silver bullet for public service reforms.
Abah was between 2013 and 2017, Head of the Bureau for Public Sector Reform in Nigeria.
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