An economic expert. Prof. Uche Uwaleke, says the new minimum wage will go a long way in alleviating the suffering of workers in the country.
Uwaleke, the Head of Banking and Finance, Nasarawa State University, Keffi said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday in Abuja.
He, however, said the major challenge was ensuring the new wage was implemented across board, especially by state governments.
A new National Minimum Wage Bill of N30,000 was passed by the National Assembly on January 29 and March 19 and was signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari on April 18.
Uwaleke urged governments at all levels to ensure a healthy and improved environment for workers to enable them put in their best at their work place.
“The welfare of workers is best improved by providing an enabling work environment such as adequate power supply and efficient means of transportation.
“Doing so will reduce inflation and the cost of living for the average worker.
“It is equally important to put in place measures to reduce workers’ out of pocket expenses such as expanding the coverage of the National Health Insurance Scheme and the National Housing scheme.
” Government should also intensify efforts at creating more job opportunities and reducing unemployment through massive investment in Agriculture and employment-elastic sectors of the economy such as Construction, ICT, etc.”
On the budget, Uwaleke commended the National Assembly on the speedy passage of the Appropriation Bill.
He said it was about the shortest period witnessed since 2015 with respect to the interval between the presentation of the budget proposals by the President and their passage.
He expressed the hope that the Executive arm would not have any qualms with the slight upwards adjustment made by the Legislature to the size of the budget.
The adjustment, which he said was mainly in respect of matters that manifested after the proposals had been submitted, such as the need to address the fallout of the carnage in Zamfara.
“Following the President’s assent, I expect this development to trigger increased tempo in economic activities including shoring up investors’ sentiments in the stock market,” Uwaleke said. (NAN)
