My Monthly salary is N942,000; No allowances – Chris Ngige

Dr. Chris Ngige, Minister of Labour and Employment, has revealed that his and other ministers’ monthly salaries amount N942,000 after taxation.

Ngige revealed this on Channels Television on Monday, May 1. He also stated that ministers do not receive allowances except for duty allowances when travelling for work.

“My salary is N942,000 a month. My salary with my PA — gross total after-tax — my feeding, my transport, the transport of one PA, the salary of my gardener and my cook, are all consolidated. After heavy taxation, they pay me N942,000. Every minister you see, that is what it is; special advisers earn around that amount too. The allowances are not anything, we don’t have any allowances except if you travel. You can get duty tour allowance like every other public officer,” Ngige said.

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The Minister also stated that the ministers’ travel allowance, along with that of permanent secretaries and others, was recently reviewed.

“It was reviewed to N100,000 for a minister, and I think ministers of states, N75,000; permanent secretaries, N70,000, and down the line. Level one, everybody else’s own was reviewed, not only our own,” he said.

When asked why the government had been unable to reduce the country’s unemployment rate, which had risen to 33.3 percent in 2021, Ngige stated that job creation was the responsibility of the private sector, not merely the governmental sector. He also blamed rising unemployment on a drop in foreign direct investment.

“The point here is that job creation is a cross-cutting thing; it is not only for the public sector to do. Everybody has it in mind that it is the government that creates jobs: ‘If we don’t work in federal ministry or government agency, we have not got a job.’ No, the private sector is there,” he said

According to the minister, the private sector has industries and workplaces that provide jobs in agriculture and other disciplines.

“It is not something for government alone. And I am telling you now, if the economy is not good, you will not have enough money in the system to ginger the system in such a way that jobs are created. That is the problem; foreign direct investment has gone down” he said.