President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday said that an Executive Bill on the proposed new minimum wage would soon be sent to the National Assembly for passage.
The President disclosed this during his presentation of the 2019 Appropriation Bill to the joint session of the National Assembly.
While assuring the Federal Government’s commitment to addressing proposed minimum wage issue, he told the lawmakers that he had directed the setting up of a technical committee to look at mode of implementation.
He clarified: “To avoid a system crisis on the Federal Government and states, it is important to device ways to ensure that its implementation does not lead to an increase in the level of borrowing.
“I am accordingly setting up a high-powered technical committee to advice on ways of funding an increase in the minimum wage and attendant wage adjustments without having to resort to additional borrowing.
“The work of the committee will be the basis of finance bill which will be submitted to the national assembly alongside the minimum wage bill”, the President added.
Buhari explained further that the committee would recommend modalities for the implementation of the new minimum wage in order to minimise the inflationary impact and ensure that its introduction does not trigger job losses.
It would be recalled that the Ama Pepple-led Tripartite Committee on the Review of National Minimum Wage, had last month submitted its report to the Presidency with a recommendation of N30, 000 as the new national minimum wage.
However, despite being part of the committee, the state governors have continued to oppose the proposed minimum wage, citing revenue income constraints as reason for their stance on the wage matter.
