Ngige urges Tinubu government to revise the minimum wage According to Chris Ngige, the Minister of Labor and Employment, Bola Tinubu's n...
Ngige urges Tinubu government to revise the minimum wage
According to Chris Ngige, the Minister of Labor and Employment, Bola Tinubu's new administration should evaluate the N30,000 minimum salary that is currently available in Nigeria.
The minimum salary in the country should be reassessed every five years to reflect the current quality of living, according to Ngige, a member of the committee that negotiated the increase from N18,000 to N30,000 in the current minimum wage in 2019.
The minister further stated that he would include in his handover notes that the discussion surrounding the minimum wage should start as soon as the new government is sworn in in May 2023, ahead of its implementation, which he said should be in May 2024. The minister made these remarks on Channels Television's Politics Today on Wednesday.
According to the most recent bill passed, the conversations should begin a year before it becomes law, he said, and would involve the public, private, and state governments.
He declared, "There are three parties involved in the negotiation: the public, private, and state governments. We made it a requirement of the bill or law that the minimum wage be reviewed automatically every five years.
"Because it took effect in 2019, the transition period will last for five years, but we also made a request in the document we presented that the dialogue and discussion should begin one year before it was scheduled to begin in May 2024.
Therefore I'm assuming that starting in May 2023, the government will appoint a new committee to assess the nation's minimum wage.
I suggest that the talks begin at any time after May 2023 in my handover note, which I will give to the transition committee and the new government.
Ngige added that the provision is already contained in the 2023 budget and that the Federal Government has approved a salary increase for federal servants that would take effect on January 1, 2023.
The minister stated that the wage increase became necessary in light of the nation's current economic situation, but added that the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (ret. ), has not yet approved the increment's percentage.
"In the Presidential Committee on Salaries, we have taken action for the civil servants for those who are on the Consolidated Public Service Pay Structure and some corporations, MDAs that are on the CONPSS," he claimed. The pay scale for government servants is called CONPSS.
We submitted a percentage for the President's approval, and our own committee has already accepted it. We specified that it should go into effect on January 1, 2023.
Ngige acknowledged that the country's economic situation had contributed to the decision to increase state officials' salaries, but he praised the Central Bank of Nigeria's naira redesign program, which he claimed had produced some "good benefits."
Although he categorically stated that the policy was not "smooth in its implementation," he claimed that it had significantly decreased insecurity because bandits and kidnappers are currently on "holiday" as a result of the cash crunch. He also added that the policy had helped to stop vote-buying during the country's recently concluded elections.
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