Minimum Wage C’ttee Advances Collation of Zonal Hearing Feedback

The Federal Government’s Minimum Wage committee has started collecting reports from various zonal public hearings.

Yusuf Kachalla, the Director of Trade Union Services and Industrial Relations at the Ministry of Labour and Productivity, revealed this information on Wednesday.

In January, the Federal Government announced its intention to implement a new minimum wage to reflect current economic conditions.

The current national minimum wage is N30,000, a figure that labor unions argue is no longer adequate due to the country’s high inflation rate, currently at 29.9 percent according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

In his New Year broadcast, President Bola Tinubu stated that his administration is committed to implementing a new minimum wage to improve the welfare of Nigerian workers.

On January 30, 2024, the government established a tripartite committee to determine a new minimum wage. The 37-member committee, chaired by former Head of the Civil Service of the Federation Goni Aji, was tasked with consulting all stakeholders and recommending a realistic national minimum wage to the government.

In furtherance of this task, zonal public hearings were held simultaneously on March 7 in Lagos, Kano, Enugu, Akwa Ibom, Adamawa, and Abuja.

During these hearings, the Nigeria Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria in different states proposed various figures as a living wage, citing the current economic challenges and high cost of living.

The NLC proposed N794,000 as the minimum wage for South-West states, while the TUC suggested N447,000.

In Abuja, the North-Central zone demanded N709,000 as the new national minimum wage, and in the South-South, N850,000 was proposed.

In the North-West, the proposed minimum wage was N485,000, while in the South-East, stakeholders demanded N540,000.

Meanwhile, governors present at the hearings called for a review of the revenue allocation formula to enable them to implement the proposed national minimum wage.

When asked for an update on the committee’s activities, Kachalla stated, “The committee is currently collecting reports from the zonal hearings. The next meeting will be scheduled shortly.”