Nigeria
Min. wage
(x12 payments)
₦70,000 /mo
About the minimum wage
Employer tax
Annual leave
6 days
Learn about annual leave
Notice period
1 day-1 month (by tenure)
Termination and notice info
Updated
Sep 2026
The default and most common employment arrangement, with no fixed end date. Termination requires statutory/contractual notice (or pay in lieu) and, increasingly under National Industrial Court jurisprudence, a justifiable reason.
Used for a defined project, task, season, or period, and common for expatriates tied to work-permit duration. No general statutory maximum duration or renewal cap, but successive renewals for effectively permanent work risk reclassification as indefinite employment.
Labour Act default is 8 hours/day, 40 hours/week for 'workers' under the Act, though many white-collar contracts specify up to 48 hrs/week; at least one 24-hour weekly rest day required. Overtime not fixed by statute for most employees — market practice commonly ~150% of ordinary rate for weekday overtime.
The Labour Act does not fix a mandatory probation length; commonly 3 months, extending up to 6 months for senior/skilled roles. Courts have struck down excessive probation clauses and require fair, documented process even during probation.
Nigeria's Labour Act does not mandate a 13th or 14th month payment or Christmas bonus; where paid, it is discretionary, based on employer policy, contract, or CBA.
The Labour Act does not restrict job titles for Nigerian nationals, but employers hiring foreign nationals must obtain Expatriate Quota approval from the Ministry of Interior specifying approved job titles/headcount. Sectors like oil & gas apply additional Nigerian Content Act requirements reserving certain roles for Nigerians.
Employers contribute 10% of monthly emoluments to the mandatory contributory pension scheme (mandatory for employers with 15+ employees). Employers also pay 1% of total monthly payroll to the Employees' Compensation Scheme (NSITF), and a 1% annual payroll levy to the Industrial Training Fund (ITF) for employers with 5+ employees or NGN 50 million+ turnover.
Employees contribute 8% of monthly emoluments to the mandatory pension scheme, withheld by the employer. Employees also have 2.5% of basic salary withheld for the National Housing Fund (NHF Act 1992), though enforcement outside the public sector is inconsistent.
In addition to statutory leave, employees are entitled to the following statutory benefits:
Nigeria's mandatory retirement savings system is the Contributory Pension Scheme under the Pension Reform Act 2014, administered by PenCom.
PenCom announced in July 2026 it intends to raise the contribution rate; as of August 2026 this remains under consultation, not yet law.
Workplace injury, disease, and death are covered by the Employees' Compensation Act 2010, a no-fault scheme administered by NSITF.
Severance/redundancy pay has no fixed statutory formula under the Labour Act — governed by the contract, a CBA, or company policy.
A 13th (or 14th) month salary is not a legal requirement in Nigeria. Where paid, it is discretionary, governed by company policy, contract, or CBA — commonly disbursed in December.
P.S. our team speaks multiple languages and we'd love to chat in your preferred language if requested.
Your employee's hours, time off, holidays, bonuses, and commissions are automatically calculated into payroll. RemoFirst will invoice you in either US Dollars (USD), Euros (EUR), British Pounds (GBP), Canadian Dollars (CAD), Australian Dollars (AUD), or Singapore Dollars (SGD) around the 15th of each month to make sure your employees are paid on time. To make it even easier, you can summarize your entire global team's salaries to aggregate them into one payment (instead of many individual payments).
Unlike full-time employees, contractors work on projects with multiple companies at a given time and are technically self-employed. Full-time employees are solely focused on their employer and usually receive benefits (such as health insurance, equity or stock options, and time off) as an additional form of compensation. While it can be cheaper to work with international contractors instead of paying benefits to a full-time employee, you run the risk of misclassification. It's recommended to work with an EOR for contractor onboarding and payments, so you can know that your international contractors are paid compliantly and on time.
Whenever the employee or employer has a question about, or anything else related to international employment, they can speak with our customer support team to get answers from our team of experts.
