President Bola Tinubu has officially transmitted a national minimum wage bill to the House of Representatives in the National Assembly for consideration and passage. The proposed bill seeks to establish ₦70,000 as the new minimum wage for Nigerian workers.
Last Thursday, President Tinubu and the leadership of the Organized Labour agreed on the ₦70,000 minimum wage after extensive negotiations. Information Minister Mohammed Idris confirmed that “the new national minimum that Mr. President is expected to submit to the National Assembly is ₦70,000.”
The agreement followed a series of discussions between labour leaders and the President, succeeding months of failed talks between labour unions and a tripartite committee on minimum wage, which President Tinubu had constituted in January.
The committee, comprising representatives from state and federal governments as well as the Organized Private Sector, had initially proposed ₦62,000, while labour leaders had demanded ₦250,000 as the new minimum wage, arguing that the current ₦30,000 was unsustainable due to inflation and high living costs exacerbated by the removal of the petrol subsidy.
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Despite labour’s initial demand for ₦250,000, they ultimately accepted the President’s offer of ₦70,000. Joe Ajaero, President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), explained that labour accepted the ₦70,000 offer because it included an agreement to review the minimum wage every three years instead of the previous five-year interval.
The submission of the wage bill to the House of Representatives comes approximately six weeks after President Tinubu announced in his Democracy Day speech on June 12, 2024, that an executive bill on the new national minimum wage would be sent to the National Assembly for passage.
