Buhari inaugurates committee to examine N30,000 minimum wage proposal

The committee has one month to complete its deliberations and submit its report and recommendations to the president.

President Muhammadu Buhari has inaugurated the Technical Advisory Committee on the Implementation of an Increase in the National Minimum Wage.

The president inaugurated the committee at the Presidential Villa on Wednesday, January 9, 2019, with a directive to complete its deliberations and submit its report and recommendations within one month.

The country's organised labour has been negotiating with the Buhari administration for over a year to increase the minimum wage for workers nationwide.

In November 2018, Buhari received the recommendation of a tripartite committee he had set up in 2017 to propose a new minimum wage. The president expressed his commitment towards getting the recommendation passed by the National Assembly as soon as possible, with the new wage pegged at N30,000.

When he presented the 2019 appropriation bill to the National Assembly in December 2018, President Buhari disclosed that he would set up a technical committee to advise on ways of funding an increase in the minimum wage, and the attendant wage adjustments, without having to resort to additional borrowings.

"The work of this Technical Committee will be the basis of a Finance Bill which will be submitted to the National Assembly, alongside the Minimum Wage Bill.

"In addition, the Technical Committee will recommend modalities for the implementation of the new minimum wage in such a manner as to minimize its inflationary impact, as well as ensure that its introduction does not lead to job losses," he said.

He said the committee would help the Federal and State governments to avoid a fiscal crisis with the proposed new wage.

State governors have been the most vocal critics of the minimum wage increment as many have lamented that they cannot afford to pay the proposed N30,000 without having to resort to tough measures as drastic as a nationwide downsizing of the workforce.