Nigeria upper legislative chamber, the Senate on Tuesday approved N30,000 as the new national minimum wage of the country Act CAP N61 LFN (repeal and re-enactment) Bill, 2019 (SB. 722).
This decision was reached after the upper chamber’s ad-hoc committee on new minimum wage headed by Senator Francis Alimikhena submitted its report.
Consequently, the Senate went on to request the executive arm to submit a supplementary budget to accommodate the new wage structure for consideration and possible approval.
The Bill, which was laid and presented by Senator Francis Alimikhena, sets the new minimum wage at N30,000.
In his speech during the passage of the bill, the 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.”
