The Nigerian Government is willing to pay N65, 000 as minimum wage, Credible News has learnt.
An authoritative source disclosed that the Federal Government is prepared to agree with organised Labour on the new amount provided the state governments are ready.
Credible News reports that the old minimum wage expired in April, 2024, five years after the Minimum Wage Act of 2019 was signed by former President Muhammadu Buhari.
The Act is to be reviewed every five years to meet up with contemporary economic demands of workers.
Following the expiration, the Labour union explained that the current minimum wage of N30,000 can no longer cater for the wellbeing of an average Nigerian worker.
The union however, recommended a new minimum wage of N615,000, which it said was arrived at after painstakingly computing the monthly cost of living of Nigerian workers, with food and transportation taking the lion share.
The development comes after the failure of the Federal Government to present a new nationally acceptable minimum wage to Nigerians after the expiration of the old minimum wage in April 2024.
Credible News recalls that President Bola Tinubu, in January, 2024 inaugurated 37-member tripartite committee, chaired by the former Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Goni Aji to come up with a new minimum wage.
The committee is to recommend a new national minimum wage for the country, with its membership cutting across federal and state governments, the private sector, and organised labour.
However, the organised labour, during the resumption of the tripartite committee meeting on Wednesday 15 of May 2024, rejected the N48,000 negotiation as minimum wage for public service workers.
Credible News learnt that the N65,000 new minimum wage is premised on the current minimum wage of N30,000 plus the N35,000 wage award approved last October by President Tinubu.
The wage award came on the heels of a planned strike action by organised labour. The government had approved what it termed a ” provisional wage award of N35,000 for all treasury-paid federal government workers for a period of six months.”
The announcement came after consultations with the Federal Government delegation, the Nigeria Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress. The wage award aims to provide relief to workers and alleviate the economic hardship caused by the removal of the fuel subsidy.
President Tinubu also urged state governors to implement the wage award for workers in their respective states.
Credible News.ng
