The Federal Government and the organised labour have reached an agreement on N70,000 as Nigeria’s new minimum wage.
The Minister of Information and National Orientation, Alhaji Mohammed Idris, spoke on the deal at the end of the meeting with labour at the State House on Thursday.
The new N70,000 minimum wage adopted by the federal government after consultation with the organised labour on Thursday will be reviewed after three years.
The minister who addressed State House correspondents said President Tinubu agreed that the national minimum wage review would no longer be done every five years.
Idris also said President Tinubu would perfect the proposal on the new minimum wage in a bill to be forwarded to the National Assembly next week.
“We’re happy to announce today that both the federal government and Organised Labour have agreed on an increase on the N62,000.
“The new national minimum wage that we expect to be submitted to the National Assembly for legislation is N70,000.
“But that is not all. Mr President has assured of massive investment in infrastructure. There is also a deepening of the investment of the federal government in renewable energy,” he said.
Idris said to complement the new minimum wage, the federal government would ramp up the rollout of Compressed Natural Gas-powered buses in order to check the high cost of transportation.
He said that efforts were also being made to improve the economy and reduce inflation, including the recent directive on the suspension of duty on certain food imports to bring down the prices of food items.
Nkeiruka Onyejeocha, Minister of State for Labour, said that the issue of minimum wage was not that of the law and not who was right, or who would blink first.
“He said that he is our father, like he has always said. That, first and foremost, the review of this minimum wage policy has to be reduced to three years, that five years is too long a time to get any minimum wage review.
“And of course, that Labour should look at the indices of the economy and accept N70,000, minimum wage,” she said.
Joe Ajaero, President of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, said that the labour unions agreed to the new minimum wage, shifting ground from their original N250, 000 proposal.
“The amount of N70,000 happens to be where we are now. But the good thing about it is that we will not wait for another five years to come for review.
“Rather than settling on a figure that we wait for five years, is like we’ll have to now negotiate even two times within five years, with a view to going up.
“That is one of the reasons we decided to reach where we are today. Because of the proviso that we can review in the next three years,” he said.
He also spoke on strike embarked upon on Thursday by the Joint Action Committee of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities and the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions.
Ajaero said the president had asked the agencies concerned to work out the modalities for the payment of those workers in the universities.
Festus Osifo, president of the Trade Union Congress, TUC, said the catch on the approved wage was the issue of five years review, which Labour had been pushing for.
“The next review will be in three years. And after that pronouncement, we from labour we have received what the president has promised from both ends,” he said.
The N70,000 minimum wage is about 133 per cent increase over the old minimum wage of N30,000, which came into effect in 2019.
President Tinubu had met with Organised Labour over the new minimum wage last week where he declared that Nigerian workers deserved improved welfare, better wages, as well as safe and enhanced working conditions.
The president also said he was concerned about the welfare of Nigerian workers and that his administration was working on a wage that would be acceptable to all.
NAN
