President Tinubu Sends ₦70,000 Minimum Wage Bill To National Assembly

On Tuesday, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu transmitted a national minimum wage bill to the National Assembly for consideration and passage.

The President separately addressed both the Senate and the House of Representatives, urging them to prioritize the review of a bill aimed at amending the National Minimum Wage Act, 2019. This bill proposes raising the National Minimum Wage from ₦30,000 to ₦70,000.

Additionally, the President requested that the lawmakers shorten the interval for the periodic review of the national minimum wage from five years to three years, among other related matters.

The President and the leadership of the Organised Labour had last Thursday agreed on ₦70,000 as the new minimum wage for Nigerian workers.

Information Minister Mohammed Idris had said, “The new national minimum that Mr President is expected to submit to the National Assembly is ₦70,000”.

The truce between the government and labour sides followed a series of talks between labour leaders and the President in the last few weeks after months of failed talks between labour organs and a tripartite committee on minimum wage constituted by the President in January.

The committee, which comprised state and federal governments and the Organised Private Sector, had proposed ₦62,000 while labour insisted on ₦250,000 as the new minimum wage for workers who currently earn ₦30,000 as minimum wage.

Labour had said ₦30,000 was unsustainable for any worker going by the economic vagaries of inflation and high cost of living which followed the removal of petrol subsidy by the President.

Despite its initial insistence on ₦250,000 as the new minimum wage, Labour accepted the President’s offer of ₦70,000 last Thursday.

The President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Joe Ajaero, said Labour accepted ₦70,000 and rejected a proposal by President Bola Tinubu to pay ₦250,000 minimum wage on a condition to increase petrol prices.

He also said Labour agreed to the ₦70,000 offer because minimum wage won’t be reviewed once in five years anymore but once every three years.

The transmission of the wage bill comes six weeks after the President said in his Democracy Day speech on June 12, 2024, that an executive bill on the new national minimum wage for workers would be sent to the National Assembly for passage.