President Buhari Makes Allowance For New Minimum Wage In 2019 Budget

Buhari Restates Commitment To Implementing New Minimum Wage

President Muhammadu Buhari has disclosed that a bill that will ensure the implementation of the new minimum wage for Nigerian Workers would soon be sent to the National Assembly.

The President made this known while presenting the 2019 budget estimates before the joint session of the National Assembly on Wednesday.

Naija News recalls the tripartite committee that worked on the new minimum, headed by a former head of the civil service of the federation, Ama Pepple had on November 6, submitted its report to President Buhari.

The committee is widely believed to have recommended N30, 000 as the new national minimum wage but state governors are still pushing for a reduction in the figure to N22,500.

The President had upon receipt of the committee’s recommendation, promised to review the report before forwarding it to the National Assembly.

Organized labour however insisted anything short of N30, 000 would be resisted while the governors are saying they can’t pay N30,000 without sacking workers.

President Buhari assured on Wednesday that he had directed the setting up of a technical committee to look into the mode of implementation for the new minimum wage.

“To avoid a crisis, it is important to devise ways to ensure that its implementation does not lead to an increase in the level of borrowing.

“I am accordingly setting up a high powered technical committee to advise on ways to fund an increase in the minimum wage and attendant wage adjustments without having to resort to additional borrowing.

“The work of the committee will be the basis of the finance bill which will be submitted to the national assembly alongside the minimum wage bill,” he said.