President Bola Tinubu has signed the minimum wage bill into law, ending months of deliberations between government authorities, labour unions, and the private sector.
The president signed the bill at the State House in Abuja on Monday, days after the National Assembly passed the Minimum Wage Act, 2019 to increase the National Minimum Wage from ₦30,000 to ₦70,000.
A National Assembly delegation led by the President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio and some members of the House of Representatives witnessed the ground-breaking event.
Following the signing, Basheer Lado, the Special Adviser to the President on Senate Matters said the move amounted to a promise kept.
“The signing of the minimum wage bill into law by His Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is both a promise kept and a demonstration of his people-centric governance model,” Lado said in a statement. “Tinubu promised to pay a living wage to Nigerian workers during his electioneering campaigns and he has kept that promise.”
President Tinubu’s move culminates months of negotiation with labour unions which insisted on a new minimum in the wake of the fuel subsidy removal and the floating of the naira which caused a marked rise in the cost of goods and services, including food.
Labour unions had initially proposed ₦494,000 as a new minimum wage with the government offering ₦60,000. After a series of negotiations, the workers demanded ₦250,000 while the government shifted grounds to N62,000.
But on July 18, the Federal Government and the unions agreed on ₦70,000 as minimum wage..
