The Nigerian government on
Thursday gave an update on the implementation of the new National Minimum Wage.
Mrs Zainab Usman, the Minister of
Finance, said that the financial implications had been worked out by the
Presidential Committee set up and that the report had been submitted to the
president.
She said this on Thursday in
Abuja, while addressing a news conference on the state of the Nigerian economy.
“We have looked at the report and
what we are working on now is how we can finance it”, NAN quoted her as saying.
“Apart from the increase of the
minimum wage from N18, 000 to N30, 000, there is also consequential adjustment
that we have to negotiate with the labour unions.
“The total implication of that
would be worked out only after the negotiations and that would involve
determining how much increase every other staff that is above the minimum wage
would get.
“It could be a flat amount or a
proportion, but the other aspect that is clear is that there would be an
increase for the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) as well because by the Act
they should earn at least the minimum wage and the NYSC also has to increase to
that N30, 000.
“So, because we have not done the
negotiation with labour, I cannot give you the details of what we are
projecting because it is simply on projections, at the end of the day, it is
what we agree with labour that will be the amount that is due.”
On the issue of debt increase
from N12.2 trillion to N23.0 trillion, Usman said it was by design.
According to her, the Economic
Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) is designed to reflate the economy and plunge
the nation out of recession by borrowing in the first to third year and in the
fourth year start reducing the borrowing.
She said the borrowing was
majorly to finance capital projects, which was why the nation was able to come
out of recession.
“The method we adopted helped us
but the consequence is this increase in debt and that is why the Ministry of
Finance and all its agencies are working to ensure that we increase revenue.
“At 19.0 per cent debt to Gross
Domestic Product (GDP), we still are the lowest among our comparator countries.
“The problem we have is a revenue
problem and that is why all we are doing is to make sure we enhance our
revenue, if our revenue performs optimally, we are in a good place as far as
debt is concerned.”
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