After the National Assembly passes the Minimum Wage Bill, President Bola Tinubu might sign it into law next week. After passing both chambers quickly during Tuesday’s plenary session, the law was completed on Wednesday and sent to the president on Thursday (yesterday), according to multiple sources within the National Assembly. The development was confirmed by Senator Abdullahi Gumel, the Senior Special Assistant on National Assembly Matters.
He stated early on Thursday that “the bill will be transmitted today (Thursday).” It is anticipated that the president will quickly assent to the legislation. The National Minimum Wage Act 2019 (Amendment Bill) was rapidly passed by the Senate and the House of Representatives.
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. The National Minimum Wage Bill passed its third reading and was adopted by the Senate by a unanimous vote following the Committee of the Whole’s clause-by-clause review.
Following the Senate’s lead, the House of Representatives swiftly approved the legislation. An executive measure regarding the new national minimum wage has been forwarded by the President to the National Assembly for review and approval. In a separate letter, he asked for the National Minimum Pay Act 2019 to be amended as soon as possible to reflect the new minimum pay of N70,000 instead of N30,000. He addressed the Senate and the House of Representatives. Additionally, the President requested that the lawmakers 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 the review. Let us agree on that and affirm it for 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, organized labor 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.
