Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, yesterday submitted to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu cost implication of a new minimum wage.
This is expected to help guide negotiation with the tripartite panel comprising government officials, labour and the Organised Private Sector (OPS).
President had on Tuesday given the Finance Minister 48 hours to submit to him the cost implication of the proposed wage review to enable government take informed decision on the contentious wage issue.
Edun submitted the document to the president in his office at the State House, Abuja.
The Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, had announced to newsmen after a closed-door meeting of the government negotiation team led by the Secretary to Government of the Federation, George Akume, at the presidential villa in Abuja, that the president directed Edun to present the cost implications for a new minimum wage within two days.
The labour unions are asking for an increase in the minimum from N30,000 to N494,000, following the rising inflation, high energy costs, skyrocketing transportation fares, and increasing house rent, among others. On Monday and Tuesday, the unions led a strike that grounded the country, after they shut down the airports as well as the national electricity grid, throwing the country into a total blackout.
