Joseph Bakare
The Senate has on Tuesday endorsed the sum of N30,000 as national minimum wage for both the federal and state governments.
The approval followed the adoption of the report of the adhoc committee on the National Minimum Wage chaired Deputy Chief Whip Francis Alimekhena (APC, Edo).
The N30,000 approved by the Senate is N3,000 higher than the N27,000 proposed by the Executive in January.
The Senate approval followed that of the House of Representatives, which equally approved N30,000 as national minimum wage in January.
Speaking on the passage of the Bill, President of the Senate, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki said, “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 organisations 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.
“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,” the Senate President said.