By Modupe Gbadeyanka
President Bola Tinubu has forwarded a bill to the National Assembly, requesting its approval to make the national minimum wage to be N70,000.
Last Thursday, Mr Tinubu brokered a deal with organised labour on a new minimum wage after it was last increased over five years ago.
In 2019, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) pushed the government to raise the wage to N30,000 from N18,000.
In April 2024, this was supposed to have been reviewed but talks about this did not start on time.
The labour unions threatened to shut down the economy if its demand for a pay rise was not met until the President waded into the matter.
Last week, both parties agreed on N70,000 as the new minimum wage, with a promise to review this in the next three years.
To make this effective, the President promised to send the bill to the parliament for passage to make it a law in the country.
On Tuesday, one of the social media aides of Mr Tinubu confirmed that the National Minimum Wage Bill has been forwarded to the legislative arm of government for passage.
“President Bola Tinubu has written to the House of Representatives, sending the National Minimum Wage Bill to them for consideration.
“When signed into law, the new minimum wage is expected to take effect from April 2024, meaning workers will be paid arrears of their increase from this period,” a post from Mr Olusegun Dada stated.