The senate has passed the new minimum wage bill that sought to enact N70,000 as the new national minimum wage among other provisions. The bill was sent to the national assembly by President Bola Tinubu after last week’s meeting with the organised labour where he announced N70,000 as the new national minimum wage.
The bill was first read by the Senate President and passed first reading, which paved the way for the second reading where the lawmaker debated on the general principles of the bill. Thereafter the senators passed the bill to be read for the third time. Upon the third reading, the bill was subjected clause by clause approval before the Senate Committee of the Whole.
This legislation will raise the national minimum wage from N30,000 to N70,000 once it is assented to by the President.
During the debate of the general principles of the bill, Opeyemi Bamidele, majority leader of the senate who led the debate, said that N70,000 was agreed upon by all the parties after negotiations.
Sen. Bamidele added that the enactment of the minimum wage legislation is part of the federal government’s short term measure to mitigate the situation in the country.
While contributing to the debate, the Tahir Monguno, chief whip, said there was a need to review the minimum wage in line with economic realities.
“The review of the minimum wage hitherto by law is to be reviewed after five years is now every three years. There is need to review it and bring it in tandem with the realities of society”, he said.
The President had previously asked the national assembly to amend the 2024 appropriation Act by increasing the total Appropriation by N6.2 trillion out of which N3.2 trillion is for infrastructure projects while N3 trillion is for recurrent expenditure.
The N3 trillion component in the president’s request is intended to cover the new national minimum wage.