Several months after President Bola Tinubu signed the new minimum wage of N70,000 for teachers into law, nine states have failed to implement the policy according to exclusive data obtained from the National Union of Teachers on Sunday.
The President had signed the bill into law on July 29, 2024 following its passage by the National Assembly on July 23, 2024, but compliance remains uneven across the country.
The delay in implementation recently led to a prolonged strike by teachers in the Federal Capital Territory who protested for over 100 days due to the failure of Area Councils to enforce the new wage.
This comes after an October 2024 report by The PUNCH revealed that 12 states were still paying teachers – particularly those under local government employment – the outdated N18,000 minimum wage, meaning they hadn’t even benefited from the N30,000 wage approved by former President Muhammadu Buhari.
According to the latest NUT data, Abia State has not implemented the new minimum wage for teachers. Adamawa State, while having moved from the old N18,000 to the N30,000 approved by former President Buhari, has yet to adopt the N70,000 wage. Ebonyi State has similarly not implemented the new wage structure. In Enugu State, while the government added a N50,000 wage award for workers including teachers, it has not formally adopted the N70,000 minimum wage.
Gombe State has not implemented the new wage for primary school teachers, while Kaduna State cited an ongoing teachers’ verification exercise as the reason for the delay. Nasarawa, Yobe and Zamfara States have also failed to enforce the new wage.
In a recent development, FCT teachers called off their strike after Area Council chairmen agreed to allocate a portion of their internally generated revenue to meet the new wage demands.
Reacting to the findings, the NUT urged the defaulting states to implement the new wage without further delay. The union also called on states already complying to ensure all categories of teachers benefit from the increase.
“Let the minimum wage reach all workers so everyone will feel a part of it. It is unfair for those not getting the higher wage, and it will affect the balance of education delivery,” said Titus Amba, National President of the NUT.
