President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has finally signed the new N70,000 National Minimum Wage Bill into law, after more than six months of agitations and deliberations among government authorities, labour unions and the private sector.
The National Assembly had last week, Tuesday passed the 2019 Amended National Minimum Wage Act bill raising the minimum wage for average workers in the country from the current N30,000 to N70,000 which later transmitted to President Tinubu who assented to the bill at the State House in Abuja on Monday, less than a week after passage by the lawmakers
A National Assembly delegation led by the President of the Senate Godswill Akpabio and some members of the House of Representatives were around to witness the ground-breaking event.
Following the signing, the Special Adviser to the President on Senate Matters Basheer Lado described the move as a promise kept by the Tinubu's administration
“The signing of the minimum wage bill into law by His Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is both a promise kept and a demonstration of his people-centric governance model,” he said in a statement. “Tinubu promised to pay a living wage to Nigerian workers during his electioneering campaigns and he has kept that promise."
It will be recalled that tripartite committee inaugurated in January, 2024 had series of meetings during which they failed to reach a compromise with the Federal Government and Organized Private Sector coming close to agreement of N62,000 minimum wage with governors expressing the disagreement saying they could only afford to pay N57,000 while Organized Labour further cut down its proposal from the N497,000 in May to N250,000 in July
The labour leaders after meeting with President Tinubu later agreed on the new minimum wage of N70,000, in addition that it would be reviewed every three years in the new wage act as against the previous five years review period
The presidency also promised to provide the needed support for both governors and private sector to enable them implement new minimum wage law in the country
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