The Federal Government of Nigeria has approved a 20 per cent increase in salaries for personnel of the Nigeria Police Force. The increase was disclosed by the Minister of Police Affairs, Muhammad Dingyadi.

The Minister announced the increase in Nigeria Police salary while addressing State House Correspondents in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital on Wednesday, December 15, 2021, after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting presided over by President Buhari.

The Federal Government through the Minister of Police Affairs, revealed, that the Nigeria police salary increase will take effect from January 2022.

According to Dingyadi, the upward review of the police salary is a product of the issues raised during the #EndSARS protests in October 2020.

The minister said the move to increase Nigeria Police salary is meant to boost the morale of police personnel across the country.

He said the take home pay will be enhanced through the duty tour allowance to 6 per cent of their new take home pay and an approval of N1.12 billion for payment of outstanding uninsured benefits for the period of 2013 to 2020.

President Buhari had promised that the salaries will be upgraded commensurate to service rendered to further maintain peace in the country.

FEC also approved the release of N13.1 billion for payment of outstanding death benefits of 5,472 personnel for the uninsured period of 2013 to August 2021.

In addition, the council approved a tax waiver in the sum of N18.6 billion for junior officers of the police to increase the take home pay effective from October 2021.

Minister of Finance Zainab Ahmed, however, disclosed that the new salary structure has not been provided for in the 2022 budget and her ministry will await the outcome of the verification of the various computations from the auditor-general.

According to her, the outcome will first require the executive to pass a supplementary budget to parliament.