N70,000 transport allowance: who gets it and what it means for your pay

What happened

The federal government agreed on 27 October to pay public servants a N70,000 monthly transport allowance for six months from November. The deal came at a meeting with the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) at the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment in Abuja.

The resolutions the NLC published after the meeting call the payment a “transport intervention” for workers “across all levels”. They urge state and local governments to join in. Labour and Employment Minister Muhammad Maigari Dingyadi and NLC President Joe Ajaero were among those who signed.

The resolutions also cover money owed to some workers. Arrears of the peculiar allowance, which the government approved from 1 May, will be paid in three equal monthly instalments from November. Health workers’ allowance arrears for 19 months are to be paid over three months from December.

Why it matters

The allowance is the same amount as the national minimum wage, N70,000 a month, but it does not change the minimum wage or anyone’s salary. It is a temporary payment that ends after six months.

The agreement followed weeks of union pressure over the cost of living. On 9 October the NLC gave the government two weeks to bring petrol prices back to where they were when the current minimum wage became law in 2024, and to start talks on a new one. The resolutions the NLC published do not mention petrol prices.

The two sides agreed to set up a committee to negotiate a new minimum wage straight away, but did not agree when a new wage would take effect. Dingyadi wrote to the NLC on 12 October that the law provides for a review every three years, so the next one is due on 1 June 2027.

The Trade Union Congress (TUC) rejected the allowance on 28 October and asked for an immediate pay rise instead. TUC President Festus Osifo said the wage award paid after fuel subsidy was removed in 2023 was never fully implemented, and that more than 80 per cent of states and the informal sector never paid any wage award.

Ajaero replied that the TUC could not reject an agreement it had not negotiated, and should put its own demands to the government. “You don’t have the power to reject what a sister agency negotiates. You have the power to ask for your own,” he said.

What happens next

Payments are due to start in November. The government has not said on what date or how they will be made, or whether every grade of worker qualifies.

The government and the NLC will meet again after a month to review how the agreement is being carried out. The TUC said it would decide its next step after its own meeting with the government.

We will update this explainer when payments begin, if any state agrees to pay the allowance, and when minimum wage talks start.

Sources: Nigeria Labour Congress; P.M. News; Daily Trust; Vanguard; ThisDay