The Senate passed legislation on Tuesday seeking to amend the National Minimum Wage Act, 2019, which would increase the minimum wage from N30,000 to N70,000.
Additionally, the Senate passed a bill that, among other provisions, aims to shorten the interval for reviewing the National Minimum Wage from five years to three years and addresses related issues.
Senate Leader, Sen. Opeyemi Bamidele (APC-Ekiti Central), introduced a bill titled “A Bill for an Act to Amend the National Minimum Wage Act, 2019′ (SB. 550), which seeks to increase the National Minimum Wage and shorten the review period from five years to three years, among other related provisions, on behalf of the Senate in 2024.
The executive bill forwarded to the Senate by President Bola Tinubu was first presented for the first reading, then scaled second reading, read the third time, and passed.
Bamidele, while leading the debate on the bill’s general principles, remarked: “Mr. President, distinguished colleagues, I humbly rise to lead the debate on the general principles of the National Minimum Wage (Amendment) Bill, 2024 (SB. 550).
“The Bill, inter alia, seeks to amend the National Minimum Wage Act, 2019, to increase the National Minimum Wage and reduce the time for periodic review of the National Minimum Wage from five (5) years to three (3) years, and for related matters.
The bill was read for the first time today, July 23, 2024.
“You will recall, Mr. President, my dear colleagues, that in recent times, a plethora of agitations and clamours have been recorded from organised labour and another segment of our society for an increase in the National Minimum Wage given the prevailing economic situation in the country.
“In response to the agitations and after a series of negotiations between the Federal Government and the Organised Labour, the current National Minimum Wage of N30,000 Naira only has been reviewed upward to the sum of N70,000 Naira only.”
Persecondnews recalls that Tinubu held a meeting with key Labour stakeholders, including Comrade Joe Ajaero of the NLC and Comrade Festus Osifo of the TUC, at the Aso Presidential Villa in Abuja on July 18.
The meeting yielded a major breakthrough as the parties reached a consensus on a new national minimum wage of N70,000.
The new wage will supersede the previous minimum wage of N30,000, which ceased to be effective on April 18, 2024.
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