The Nigerian federal government has just announced that it will institute a new minimum wage for workers in 2024.
Mohammed Idris, the Minister of Information and National Orientation, made this disclosure at the conclusion of end-of-year world press conference in FCT, Abuja.
According to Minister Idris, the government hopes to work with organized labour on the planned new minimum wage.
He had, however, not disclosed how much the new minimum wage would be.
On a side note, the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, has refuted claims that it is in discussions with the Federal Government over executing a new minimum wage.
While reacting to the Federal Government’s proposed plan, the spokesperson of the NLC, Mr Benson Upah, affirmed that the government had showed interest in working with labour on a new minimum wage but he had admitted that talks were yet to commence.
According to Upah, the minimum wage had a four-year cycle after which it is required to be reviewed.
Recall that the lrevious Buhari-led administration fixed the sum of 30,000 Naira as the minimum wage since 18 April 2019.
However, since the removal of fuel subsidy in June, shortly after President Tinubu’s administration, the Government of Nigeria announced an additional N35,000 wage award for six months.
This new proposed development is coming as Nigeria’s inflation keeps surging, peaking at 28.80% in November.
