Minimum Wage Public Hearing: Committee Seeks Stakeholders’ Participation

The Tripartite Committee on the National Minimum Wage, led by the Chairman of the National Salaries, Incomes, and Wages Commission (NSIWC), Ekpo Nta, has announced public hearings in six geopolitical zones on March 7, 2024, at 10 a.m.

The committee, headed by retired Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Alhaji Bukar Aji, was inaugurated by Vice President Kashim Shettima to consult stakeholders on a new minimum wage for Nigerian workers.

The public hearings will take place in the North-East at the Banquet Hall, Government House, Yola, Adamawa State; North-West at the Africa House, Government House, Kano; South-South at Ibom Hall, IBB Way, Uyo, Akwa Ibom State; North-Central at the Chida Hotel Event Centre, Plot 224, Solomon Lar Way, Utako, Abuja; and the South-East and South-West locations will be announced later.

The committee’s mandate is to consider the minimum wage in the context of the dynamics of the national economy and recommend a realistic and practical national minimum wage to the government while ensuring all stakeholders are carried along in its assignment.

Stakeholders, including state and local governments, labour unions, employers of labour, civil society groups, small and medium enterprises, and other interested parties in the six geopolitical zones, are invited to attend the public hearings.

Participants are encouraged to submit a memorandum containing proposals on a new national minimum wage per month for workers, proposed coverage in terms of the number of employees engaged by any agency, and the area of economic activity to be excluded, if any.

Additionally, the committee seeks proposals on enhancing and sustaining high productivity in the public and private sectors of the economy, the frequency and mechanism of future reviews, and proposed penalties for contravening the National Minimum Wage Act by individuals or corporate bodies.