New minimum wage to commence from April – FGN

The Federal Government of Nigeria on Thursday said a new minimum wage regime would come into effect on April 1, 2024.

The Minister of Information and National Orientation, Idris Mohammed disclosed this in an interview in Abuja, noting that the current N30,000 minimum wage would expire at the end of March 2024.

The Federal Government would likely spend N24.66tn on salaries in 2024, 2025, and 2026.

The removal of the fuel subsidy by President Bola Tinubu on May 29, 2023, led the Federal Government to pay N35,000 to each of its workers to mitigate the effect of the subsidy removal.

However, Labour unions on Thursday confirmed that they had started negotiating with the Federal Government concerning wage awards, highlighting that based on the country’s labour law, the minimum wage should be reviewed every five years.

The Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed, said the improved take-home pay was meant to replace the temporary palliative measure put in place by the government to cushion the cost of living crisis caused by the fuel subsidy removal.

“Certainly, there is a new wage regime that will come in on April 1, 2024. That is why these palliatives were targeted so they would cushion economic hardship before then. In our negotiation with Labour, we said that the wage issue was not something one could just fix. A committee that will also involve Labour itself will work on it.

“The committee is being constituted and we are talking to Labour about it. And by the time this current wage regime expires by the end of March, we will expect that a new wage will begin by April. It is in this wage regime that we will now have a proper salary structure for workers across the length and breadth of Nigeria. We expect that the private sector and state governors will also do the same.” He said.

Since organised Labour demands a new minimum wage, an analysis of the 2024 –2026 Fiscal Framework indicates that the Federal Government intends to spend 29.18 per cent of its total budgets for 2024, 2025, and 2026 on salaries and pensions.