TheCable

Members of the economic management team headed by Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo held a meeting over the new national minimum wage on Wednesday.

The meeting, presided over by the vice-president, was the second in a week. The team met on Monday on the same issue of workers’ salaries.

A source at the first meeting told TheCable that the federal government maintained its earlier proposal to pay N24, 000 as new minimum wage.

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has insisted that it would not go below the N30,000 agreed at the last meeting of the minimum wage negotiation tripartite committee.

Those at Wednesday’s meeting were Chris Ngige, minister of labour and employment; Boss Mustapha, secretary to the government of the federation (SGF); Zainab Ahmed, minister of finance; and Udoma Udoma, minister of budget and national planning.

Ngige had disclosed on Wednesday that the federal government had rejected the N22,500 minimum wage proposed by the governors as the N22,500.

“If you make a law and hoax a figure that is not agreeable, which people don’t have the capacity or ability to pay because the International Labour Organisation (ILO) says in those negotiations, the principle is the ability to pay,” the minister said.