Hope for workers as Buhari’s 2020 budget captures new minimum wage
President Muhammadu Buhari has captured the new N30,000 minimum wage in the 2020 appropriation bill presented before a joint session of the National Assembly on Tuesday afternoon.
This comes as a sigh of relief for workers and labour unions in the country, who had threatened to go on an industrial strike over delay in the implementation of the new wage.
President Buhari stated at the budget presentation, that the increase of N620.28 billion in non-debt recurrent expenditure is a reflection of the new minimum wage.
“The non-debt recurrent expenditure includes N3.6 trillion for personnel and pension costs, an increase of N620.28 billion over 2019.
“This increase reflects the new minimum wage as well as our proposals to improve remuneration and welfare of our Police and Armed Forces.”
In a reaction, the Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige, disclosed that the Federal Government plans to reconstitute a new committee to begin fresh negotiations for the full implementation new national minimum wage.
Senator Ngige, however, warned that the delay in agreement for the full implementation of the new minimum wage may put the Federal and State governments in a difficult position to pay because of the backlog that would arise.
