PRESIDENT Bola Tinubu has approved N70,000 minimum wage for Nigerian workers, a N8,000 increase from the earlier N62,000 proposal.
The Minister of Information Mohammed Idris, announced this at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, on Thursday, July 18.
According to Idris, the President made the announcement at the ongoing meeting with leaders of organised labour.
Tinubu’s N70,000 approval represents over 130 per cent increase from the current minimum wage of N30,000.
Meanwhile, according to a report by Arise TV, the labour leaders, Joe Ajaero, President of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), and Festus Usifo, President of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), present at the meeting alongside some members of their unions, have agreed to the new minimum wage.
Also, in a post by Tinubu’s media aide, Bayo Onanuga, on Thursday, the President promised to find ways to assist the private sector and the sub-nationals to pay the minimum wage.
The ICIR reported that governors across Nigeria’s 36 states had earlier opposed the N60,000 minimum wage initially proposed by the federal government.
The governors rejected the proposal in a statement by the director, media and public affairs of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), Halimah Salihu Ahmed, on Friday, June 7.
The workers had embarked on a strike on Monday, June 3, and relaxed it the following day, to compel the government to agree on an acceptable minimum wage.
The suspension of the industrial action was at the heel of the resolution reached between the federal government representatives and the labour after a six-hour meeting in the evening of Monday, June 3, in Abuja.
The government agreed to improve the offer beyond the initial N60,000, with President Tinubu ordering the Finance Minister, Wale Edun to prepare a template for the workers’ minimum wage.
Usman Mustapha is a solution journalist with International Centre for Investigative Reporting. You can easily reach him via: umustapha@icirnigeria.com. He tweets @UsmanMustapha_M