Governors of the 36 states in Nigeria have insisted that while they are not opposed to the ongoing plans to approve a new minimum wage for workers in the country, they lacked the capacity to pay.

Rising from its meeting with the President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Mr. Ayuba Wabba in Abuja on Thursday night, the governors, under the auspices of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) said they have commenced moves to ensure that all salary arrears owed by their various states were cleared

Speaking to newsmen shortly after the meeting, the NGF Chairman, Governor Abdulaziz Yari of Zamfara State said they were looking for ways of getting debtor states to offset arrears of workers’ salaries using the monies from the outstanding Paris Club refund.

Governor Yari said the governors were in support of negotiating a new minimum wage but stressed that the issue was the unavailability or resources to take care of any agreed minimum wage.

“We made it very clear that we are not against any upward review of salaries. We are in tandem with the NLC to get minimum wage review. But the problem of the states is the capacity to pay what is agreed. As we are talking today we are struggling with ₦18,000.

“So if we are going to review it up, it is not about only reviewing it but how are we going to get the resources to cater for it?,” he queried.