Wage Adjustments Cost FG N9.39trn From Subsidy Savings in Two Years — Oyedele
Nafiu Muhammad Lema
The Federal Government spent N9.39 trillion on wage adjustments, minimum wage increases and allowances for public servants between June 2023 and December 2025, Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Taiwo Oyedele, has disclosed.
Oyedele made the disclosure on Wednesday in Abuja while addressing a press conference on the financial impact of the economic reforms introduced by President Bola Tinubu’s administration.
The minister said the amount spent on higher wages during the period was more than the Federal Government’s entire share of resources generated from the removal of the petrol subsidy and foreign exchange reforms.
He explained that the Federal Government received N5.4 trillion out of the N15.8 trillion mobilised for the federation through the reforms between June 2023 and December 2025, while N10.4 trillion was distributed to state and local governments.
According to him, the resources generated from the reforms, combined with additional revenue and borrowing, provided the Federal Government with N20.4 trillion in incremental resources during the period.
However, he said the government’s additional expenditure stood at N30.64 trillion.
Oyedele disclosed that N9.39 trillion of the expenditure went into wage adjustments and related allowances, while N9.37 trillion was used for external debt servicing and N6.5 trillion for strategic infrastructure.
The Federal Government increased the national minimum wage from N30,000 to N70,000 in June 2024 following President Tinubu’s assent to the new National Minimum Wage Act, which provides for a review every three years.
Oyedele said the wage increases were part of measures taken by the government to cushion the effects of the petrol subsidy removal, which was announced in June 2023 and resulted in a sharp increase in petrol prices and higher living costs.
He acknowledged that the reforms had imposed significant costs on Nigerians but maintained that the government had introduced measures to reduce their impact.
“The decisions came at a real cost, and we are not here to pretend otherwise,” the minister said.
