The Federal Government has denied entering into an agreement
with the organised labour to increase the minimum wage from N18,000 to N30,000.
On Tuesday, the president of the Nigeria Labour Congress
(NLC), Ayuba Wabba, was quoted to have said that the Federal Government and the
Labour leaders had agreed on N30,000 as the new minimum wage which will soon be
announced.
However, the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige,
while speaking with state house correspondents after the Federal Executive
Council, denied the report. According to Ngige, the Federal government has
proposed to pay N24,000 as minimum wage while state governors are proposing
N20, 000.
“Such information is not true'' Ngige said
According to Ngige, when the Federal government and the
labor unions met to deliberate on the new minimum wage on October 5, after the
NLC had called off its nationwide strike, “the organised labour came down to
N30,000, the organised private sector came down to N25,000”.
Ngige said the government had to consult with the 36 state
governors and after the consultations, the FG proposed N24,000, while governors
proposed N20,000.
He said the government was still consulting and negotiations
is ongoing.
