New Telegraph-Admin In order to fast track implementation of the N70,000 new minimum wage recently approved for Nigerian workers, the Senate, yesterday, suspended relevant sections of its Standing Orders, to pass the New Minimum Wage Bill 2024.
President Bola Tinubu, had earlier sent the bill to the two chambers of the National Assembly, and pleaded with them to give expeditious treatment to the proposal, to enable him address the minimum wage crisis, which heated up the polity in the last few months.
The Leader of the Senate, Senator Opeyemi Bamidele, presented the Bill titled: “A Bill for an Act 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 years to three years and for related matters, 2024, 2024 (SB. 550).”
According to legislative tradition, the bill passed first, which was reading out President Tinubu’s request; then it passed through second, which involves debate on general principles, and went through third reading, which is the final passage, all within one hour.
According to Bamidele, the bill seeks to raise the country’s minimum wage for the civil servants from N30, 000 to N70,000, noting that N70,000 was agreed upon by all the parties after negotiations by the Tripartite Committee on the National Minimum Wage.
“This is part of the Federal Government’s short term measure to mitigate the situation in the country,” Bamidele said. Contributing to the debate, the Senate Chief Whip, Senator Tahir Monguno, said that there was a need to review the minimum wage to align with economic realities in the country.
“The review of the minimum wage used to be after every five years. It is now every three years,” Monguno said. Also passed by the Senate yesterday is a bill, inter alia, that seeks to reduce the time for periodic review of the National Minimum Wage from five years to three years, and for Related Matters.
The Executive Bill forwarded to the Senate by President Bola Tinubu was first presented for the first reading, then scaled second reading and was read the third time and passed.
