President Tinubu set date to sign N70,000 minimum wage bill

Multiple sources within the National Assembly revealed that the bill was finalized on Wednesday and transmitted to the President on Thursday (yesterday) after its expeditious passage by both chambers during Tuesday’s plenary.

The Senior Special Assistant on National Assembly Matters, Senator Abdullahi Gumel, confirmed the development.

“The bill will be transmitted today (Thursday),” he told The PUNCH correspondent earlier on Thursday.

The President is expected to give expeditious assent to the bill.

The Senate and the House of Representatives swiftly passed the National Minimum Wage Act 2019 (Amendment Bill).

The bill, which underwent second and third readings in both legislative chambers of the National Assembly within minutes of being transmitted by the President, was approved separately by the Senate and the House of Representatives on Tuesday.

Following a unanimous vote after a clause-by-clause consideration by the Committee of the Whole, the National Minimum Wage Bill passed its third reading and was approved by the Senate.

The House of Representatives passed the bill immediately, mirroring the Senate’s actions.

The President had transmitted an executive bill on the new national minimum wage Bill to the National Assembly for consideration and passage.

He separately wrote to the Senate and the House of Representatives, requesting prompt consideration of the bill to amend the National Minimum Wage Act 2019, to reflect the new minimum wage from N30,000 to N70,000.

Additionally, the President requested the lawmakers to reduce the period for periodic review of the national minimum wage from five years to three years.

This followed the agreement reached by Tinubu and labour leaders on ₦70,000 as the new minimum wage for Nigerian workers after a meeting at the Aso Presidential Villa, Abuja.

The N70,000 wage replaced the N30,000 minimum wage that expired on April 18, 2024.

To give legal teeth to the agreement, the National Assembly passed the executive bill on the new minimum wage.

Announcing the new wage benchmark, the President said, “We are driving this economy together. Let us look at the tenure of review. Let us agree on that, and affirm three years. Two years is too short. We affirm three years. We will review it.

“I am going to move from the tripartite committee. I am going to edge a little bit forward, looking at the review that we have done. Yes, no one in the federal establishment should earn less than N70,000. So, we are going to benchmark at N70,000.”

The Tripartite Committee on the New National Minimum Wage set up in January had submitted two separate figures to the President following a disagreement among the stakeholders.

While the government team and the organised private sector proposed N62,000, Organised Labour demanded N250,000.

On receiving the committee’s report, the President asked for more time to dialogue with the relevant stakeholders to harmonise the figures before transmitting an executive bill to the National Assembly.

Subsequently, he held meetings with the organised private sector and the sub-nationals on a nationally acceptable minimum wage.