Following the adoption of the report by the ad hoc committee set up on the New Minimum Wage Bill presented to the National Assembly by President Muhammadu Buhari, the House of Representatives has approved the sum of N30,000 as the new national minimum wage.
Passing the bill for the third reading, the lawmakers unanimously approved the N30,000 recommendation by the committee in consonance with the resolution by the tripartite committee set up by the President.
President Buhari had in the executive bill sought the approval of N30,000 minimum wage for Federal workers and N27,000 for states and the private sector.
Dogara said, “Today, we passed the new national minimum wage Bill 2019 in keeping with our commitment to improve the welfare of the Nigerian workers.
“The Bill was given speedy and accelerated passage in just two legislative days as a House of the Nigerian people.”
Chris Ngige, the Minister of Labour, had disclosed the approval of the transmission of the National minimum wage bill to the National Assembly by the National Council of State.
The Minister made this known while briefing State House correspondents at the end of the Council of State meeting chaired by President Muhammadu Buhari.
Ngige explained that the Federal Executive Council (FEC) and the National Economic Council (NEC) meetings have already considered the bill.
Meanwhile, the new minimum wage had been addressed by President Buhari, during the 90 minutes interview which was dedicated to usher-in preparation for the 2019 election, as well as serve as voters’ education platform.
While defending the choice not to increase the minimum wage as demanded by the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), President Buhari said before his administration resume office, there were States that couldn’t pay salaries between 1999 and 2014, and bailout had to be administered by his government twice.
To buttress his point, President Buhari quoted a Hausa adage about a mad woman who tried to load tied sticks on her head but couldn’t because of the weight, instead of reducing the sticks, she added more to it.
