Senate approves N30,000 minimum wage

Specifically, the Senate recommended an urgent review of the revenue-sharing formula, which will enhance the states to pay the new minimum wage.

Also, the Minister of Finance and her counterparts in the Budget and National Planning, were urged to compute the supplementary budget and forward to the National Assembly for inclusion in the 2019 budget.

As we reported earlier, the members of the House of Representatives agreed to the new wage bill. This followed the adoption of the Senate Adhoc Committee’s report on the New Minimum Wage, which also recommended N30,000 as the new minimum wage.

Speaking on the passage of the Bill, President of the Senate, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki said the following:

“Let me join our colleagues to commend the efforts of the committee. More importantly, let me commend the patience of Nigerian workers and the leadership of the Labour Union, who have over the years been calling for this minimum wage and have carried their efforts responsibly.

“I want to commend the leaders of the organizations of the union. Let me also state that as government, we should ensure that at times like these, we should not wait for there to be strikes to do what is truly deserving for our workers.

The Senate President further stated that he hopes the new minimum wage will encourage government workers to be more productive.

“I hope that with this minimum wage our workers will double their efforts to increase their productivity, so that we can also improve the general productivity of the country. It is my hope that the implementation of this will start immediately.”

Meanwhile, it was earlier reported that members of Senate agreed on very stiff punishment for civil servants who do not go to work as a fine of N75,000 to be paid by any erring Civil servant, citing instances of workers who abscond from their duty posts, only to wait and come to the secretariat whenever the salaries were ready.