Just In! Council Of State Approves N27,000 Minimum Wage For Workers

AgegePulse Magazine

The National Council of State has approved N27, 000 as the new National Minimum Wage for workers in the country.

This was one of the decisions reached on Tuesday at the Council of State meeting which took place in Abuja.

The meeting was presided over by the President, Alhaji Muhammadu Buhari.
The Council of State consists of former rulers of the country and former Chief Justices of the Federation.

The organised Labour is pushing for a N30, 000 minimum wage. According to the organised Labour, they had agreement with the Buhari administration that the national minimum wage will be N30, 000.

The new pronouncement may again pitch the organised Labour with the government.

The Gazelle

Minimum Wage: NLC suspends planned nationwide strike

AgegePulse Magazine

November 6, 2018Azeezat Adedigba

The Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) has called off the nationwide industrial action initially scheduled to commence on November 6 to further press for workers’ demand for new national minimum wage.


The President of the NLC, Ayuba Wabba, said this on Monday night in Abuja while addressing journalists at the end of a meeting of the tripartite committee set up by government to negotiate labour’s demand.

Organised labour had threatened to commence nationwide strike on November 6 should government fail to accede to its N30,000 minimum wage demand. The federal government had offered to pay N24,000 while some state governments are even offering less.

But briefing journalists on Monday night, Mr. Wabba said, “The tripartite negotiating committee this evening concluded its assignment. Agreement has been reached and also documents have been signed. The report will be submitted to Mr. President tomorrow by 4:15pm.

“Therefore, as organised labour, we want to use this medium to thank all the tripartite partners for their understanding and importantly for concluding this very national assignment.

“And having reached this position, and also the fact that the assignment has been concluded, organised labour also decided that the proposed industrial action is hereby suspended.

“Therefore, we thought this should be communicated appropriately without also any delusion or missing information.

“As the chairperson have said, mutual agreements have been reached and this will be make public tomorrow and we must appreciate the roles that organised private sectors have actually demonstrated and the attitude brought to this process and to members of the tripartite negotiating team.”

The Chairperson, Tripartite Committee, Amma Pepple, corroborated Mr Wabba’s claim, saying her committee had reached a truce and concluded its assignment.


“We are going to present our report to Mr President tomorrow at 4:15pm and he will reveal the figure that we have recommended,” she said.

Meanwhile, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, commended members of the committee for their time and commitment to the long and tortuous negotiation processes.

“I am confident that government will give expeditious consideration of the report tomorrow by Mr President and very soon the processes will be put in place to truly actualise your recommendations so that the status of our working populace will be enhanced and they would receive appropriate and commensurate payments for the services they offer to our nation and to the different sectors of our economy,” he said.

Government and labour had been at loggerheads over the demand for a new minimum wage. Labour says the minimum wage of N18,000 is paltry and no longer acceptable.

More to come…

Premium Times

Workers to know new minimum wage in August, says TUC

The President of the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria, Mr. Bobboi Kaigama, announced on Wednesday that a new amount agreed on by the Federal Government and labour to serve as Nigeria’s new minimum wage would be announced next month.

Bobboi, who made the disclosure in an interview with the labour correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria in Lagos, said that the committee working on the minimum wage had almost concluded negotiations on the matter.

The Federal Government had set a September date to roll out a new minimum wage for workers, although the Minister of Labour, Dr Chris Ngige, was recently reported as “double-speaking’’ on the issue.

Civil servants in Nigeria are eagerly awaiting a wage increase after years of enduring a wage structure, described by analysts as one of the lowest in the world.

But public office holders in Africa’s most populous nation, including members of the bi-cameral parliament enjoy some of the biggest wages in the world, according to analysts.

Kaigama said that a tripartite committee meeting was holding on Wednesday in Abuja but refused to elaborate on issues being discussed at the meeting.

“The tripartite meeting is holding today but I do not want to pre-empt the outcome or the level we have reached in our discussions, otherwise there will be unnecessary anxiety.

”But by the end of August, I am assuring you that workers will know what the agreed new minimum wage will be, ” he said.

On November 22, 2017, President Muhammadu Buhari approved the appointment of a 30-member committee to work out a new minimum wage. He inaugurated the committee on November 27.

Buhari was, subsequently, hailed by workers for listening to their cries for a review of the current N18, 000 minimum wage put in place by former President Goodluck Jonathan in 2011.

The labour movement, including the Nigeria Labour Congress and the TUC had previously demanded N56, 000 as new minimum wage.

However, the President of the NLC, Mr Ayuba Wabba later submitted a memorandum to the wage committee, demanding N66, 500 “living wage’’.

Wabba said the living wage was necessary to restore confidence for workers, whom he said, had been devastated by years of exploitation and enduring slave wage.

The committee negotiating the new wage is made up of representatives of the Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association, the TUC/NLC and the government, represented by the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment.

(NAN) Punch