BUSINESS & ECONOMY FG okays 29-member panel on N56,000 minimum wage demand

Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige

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Olalekan Adetayo, Abuja

The Federal Government on Wednesday approved a 29-member tripartite committee on a new minimum wage being clamoured for by the workers.

The Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, disclosed this to State House correspondents at the end of the weekly meeting of the Federal Executive Council presided over by the Acting President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo.

Ngige said the approval came after an extensive deliberation on the report of a technical committee on the issue, which he chaired.

“The matter needs to be thrashed out by all stakeholders, because already, employers under the umbrella of the Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association have rejected the N56,000 minimum wage proposal,” the minister said.

Udoma added, “We believe that the interventions we are making and the steps we are taking are in the right direction.

“The results that were released were for one quarter. There are still three quarters and we have enough time to do better; we will work hard to continue to stimulate the economy to meet our target.”

The Minister of Interior, Abdurahman Danbazzau, said Osinbajo directed that a proposal for the decongestion and expansion of prisons as well as the establishment of six ‘half-way houses’ across the country be presented to the National Economic Council for more inputs.

He noted that some of the prisons in the country were 100 years old, adding that deplorable prison conditions were worsened by the fact that 70 per cent of inmates were awaiting trial, while five per cent of the remainder were on death row.