From Isaac Anumihe, Abuja
Four years after the introduction of National Minimum Wage (NMW) of N30,000 a month, the Federal Government has set up a monitoring team to identify states that are not implementing the scheme.
Speaking at the sensitisation workshop to kick-start the implementation strategy, yesterday, in Abuja, Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, said that no establishment can claim ignorance or non-involvement in reaching the collective bargaining agreement (CBA) on the national minimum wage.
The minister who was represented by his Special Assistant, Mrs Chinedu Clara Dike, insisted that ensuring compliance with the NMW Act is a sure way to ensure that workers are not short-changed and that productivity is not endangered.
According to him, a satisfied worker will surely contribute effectively and efficiently to the sustainability and growth of the enterprise.
This, he said, would contribute to national development and less disruptions in productivity due to industrial actions in any of its variations.
Ngige said that the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) known globally as the Global Goals, adopted in 2015 by the United Nations is a call to action to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure that by 2030 all people enjoy peace and prosperity.
In his remarks, the Director General of Budget Office, Mr Ben Nwabueze, lamented that the nation is going through a lot of fiscal challenges, with the government fully overstretched to the extent of borrowing to fund projects in Nigeria.
The Director General who spoke through the Budget Manager of the Budget Office, Mr Nuhu Mohammed stated further that if the country does not borrow, no projects would be executed in Nigeria as at today.
Mr Adeyeye Elutade who represented the Statistician General of the Federation, Prince Semiu Adeyemi Adeniran, maintained that a new minimum wage is due given that when the N30,000 minimum wage was implemented in 2019, inflation was 11.40 per cent and now inflation is 21.47 per cent (88.3 per cent increase).
Similarly, in 2019, the poverty level was 40 per cent as against 63 per cent poverty level now.
For the Statistician General, the government intends to move 100 million Nigerians out of poverty in 10 years but with the N30,000 minimum wage, it appears impossible to achieve the goal.
Meanwhile, the Chairman of National Salaries Incomes and Wages Commission (NSIWC), Ekpo Nta (represented by Dr Mojisola Yaya-Kolade), agreed that the monitoring should have been done earlier but was hindered by circumstances beyond the control of the commission.
However, he said that productivity is essential to compensation. So, productivity must be considered in tandem with compensation in the course of the monitoring activities.