The Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, has assured workers across the country that the new minimum wage will take effect from April 18, 2019, the date it was signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari.
Ngige, who was speaking with journalists in Abuja on Friday, noted that whenever the new wage was to be implemented, it would be done in arrears to reflect the date it was signed by Buhari.
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He added that, “It is a national law and no governor can say he will not pay. Issue of the national minimum wage is item 34 on the exclusive legislative list of the third schedule of the Nigerian constitution. Every state government is now owing workers if they have not started paying N30,000. We are now in a committee working out a new template with which we will adjust upward.”
Continuing, he said, “Employers in the private sector adjusted immediately; but in the government sector, the bureaucracy and bottleneck of government are responsible for the delay. You know that you must budget for it. However, whenever the encumbrances are removed, we will pay with effect from 18th April, 2019.”