Average Salary in Nigeria & Analysis

What is the average salary in Nigeria? Salary is a type of payment or compensation an employer gives to an employee for a job done as specified in the employment contract. Salary is usually paid at a fixed time (Weekly, Monthly, etc.)

National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission (NSIWC) who is responsible for the determination and implementation of the wages of each sector in Nigeria especially the Federal Government Workers, have recently released a circular.

The Circular released is to make sure the new national minimum wage is implemented and it indicates that school leavers in Grade Level 4 (GL 04) in the Civil Service will receive a yearly salary of N242,994, while those at the top of the Public Service at Grade Level 17 – S1 will get N4,183,600 yearly. This would have been a fair wage if the high rise in the cost of commodities is not put into consideration.

When these annual salaries are broken-down to 12-month, calculations show that a school leaver will get N20,249 every month while a director would take home N348,633 monthly.

A diploma holder who joins the Public Service on Grade Level 07 will get N517, 965 as their annual salary which breaks down to N43,163.75 per month.

Although these statistics cover almost all level in the Public Service, the salary structure of the head of parastatals and permanent secretaries were not made public by NSIWC.

Nevertheless, these statistics show that workers from Grade Level 12 – 14 will halt on Step 11, while Grade Level 15 – 17 workers will stop at step 9. These are the point which they will get to and won’t get salary increment until they retire from the Federal Civil Service.

These statistics cover the minimum wage bill signed by ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, although a new minimum wage bill has been signed by President Buhari, the salary structure across all public sectors have not been released yet and several States have not agreed to the bill.

Aside from the statistics are given by NSIWC, Nigeria’s average minimum and maximum salary is ranged between N37,000 to N5,000,000 monthly. The median salary value is N300,000 monthly, which proves that half of the country’s working population earns less than N300,000 monthly. 25% of the population earn below N150,000, less than 25% earn above N576,000 monthly.

Items added with basic salary are; meal subsidy, industrial supervision allowance, leave grant, transport allowance, utility allowance, learned society allowance, examination administration allowance, responsibility allowance, inducement allowance, field trip allowance, research allowance, journal allowance, rural posting allowance, teaching allowance, clinical duty allowance, administrative officer allowance. Entitled officers also get; driver’s allowance and domestic servant allowance.

Average Hourly Wage in Nigeria

The average Nigerian worker earns N2,651 every working hour, and the hourly wage is paid for every hour of work done.

The Nigerian job is in two categories; the monthly salary job and the time-based jobs. The monthly salary jobs had a fixed salary that is agreed by the employer and employee, so it doesn’t depend on the number of hours worked. The wages of time-based jobs are paid based on the number of hours worked.

How much is a good Salary in Nigeria?

To convert monthly salary to an hourly wage, we use the formula below:

Hourly Wage = Annual Salary ÷ (52 x 5 x 8)

So, if a monthly salary is N250,000, your hourly wage would be

N250,000 ÷ (25 x 5 x 8) = N120.19 / hour

Average Salary in Nigeria by Job Categories in Nigeria