The Federal Government of Nigeria has announced plans to implement a performance-based salary scheme for civil servants.
This new system, targeted for launch in 2025, aims to reward productivity and incentivize better performance within the public sector.
According to the Director-General of the National Productivity Centre, NPC, Nasir Raji-Mustapha, the proposed scheme would move away from a one-size-fits-all approach to salaries.
Under the new system, employees at the same grade level could see a difference in their pay based on their individual contributions.
The government believes this performance-based system will be a boon for the economy, as it directly links worker output to financial reward. NPC boss Raji-Mustapha emphasized the importance of worker participation in the design of the scheme, stating that “labour, as a critical stakeholder, is being carried along in this exercise.”
He said, “We are in the process of developing a productivity-led wage system that will ensure that those who are productive are rewarded for their efforts irrespective of their grade level.
Under the proposed system, employees on the same salary scale can earn different wages.”
When asked whether the new proposal on a productivity-led wage system had the support and input of organised labour, the NPC boss stressed that such a task couldn’t be carried out without the input of labour.
Raji-Mustapha said: “Of course, labour as a critical stakeholder is being carried along in this exercise. As researchers, we don’t just do things without considering the recipient of the reports.
“When we started the project about three or four years ago, we held a stakeholders’ forum in which the labour unions participated.
We even went further to send a memo to NLC and TUC to ask them whether they will support the proposed Wage System and they said they will welcome it.”
He added that the report for the first phase of the study was ready, adding that the next stage would be to engage various stakeholders to consider and make input before finally presenting it to the federal government for its consideration and possible adoption.
