The Nigerian Government has fixed January 23 to transfer the executive bill for the new minimum wage to the National Assembly.
This was revealed by Chris Ngige, the Minister of Labour and Employment, after a meeting with the labour unions in Abuja on Tuesday.
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and other trade unions held a nationwide protest on Tuesday to demand the implementation of N30,000 minimum wage.
The Nigerian government also signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the union as a show of readiness on its part to implement the new wage.
While addressing newsmen, Ngige said: “As for the transmission of the executive bill to the National Assembly, the government will religiously implement all the processes that will enable us to transmit this bill within the stipulated time. We have a target time of January 23, 2018, and we hope that all things being equal, the government will be able to do so.”
He urged labour unions to shelve all planned protests, stating that government would ensure smooth transmission of the bill.
“We will take all statutory meetings of the Federal Executive Council, National Economic Council and the National Council of State to enable us transmit the bill on the new national minimum wage.”
Ayuba Wabba, Chairman of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), who also addressed journalists after the meeting, maintained that the government ought to have gone past the present stage in implementing the new minimum wage, as workers have had to wait for two years.
“After the submission of the report by the tripartite committee that deliberated on the minimum wage two months ago, it was expected that the Federal Government would have gone beyond the present stage of making effort to transmit a bill to NASS,” he said.
