The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria has commended President Bola Tinubu for achieving the breakthrough on the long-awaited minimum wage for Nigerian workers.

MAN director-general Segun Ajayi-Kadir made the commendation while reacting to the N70,000 minimum wage agreement by Mr Tinubu and leaders of labour unions on Thursday in Abuja.

The minimum wage was increased from N30,000 to N70,000, and Mr Tinubu said it would be reviewed after three years. He also promised to find ways to assist the private sector and the sub-nationals to pay the minimum wage.

Mr Ajayi-Kadir stated that manufacturers looked forward to the promised assistance, urging the private sector to hold onto the president’s promise in this regard to enable the private sector onboard with the agreement.

Mr Ajayi-Kadir presented a list of demands to enable the private sector to take on payments of the new minimum wage. He said that small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) should be exempted from compliance given their incapacity and prevailing operational challenges.

He added that the Central Bank of Nigeria should redeem all validly transacted outstanding foreign exchange forwards for companies in the productive sector.

Mr Ajayi-Kadir called for a reversal of the increase in electricity tariffs or only a 100 per cent increase in electricity tariffs for a minimum of 20 hours of supply.

He proposed duty exemption on imported conversion kits, government subsidy on procurement of same and a freeze on introducing new taxes on businesses for the next five years.

“We call for a fixed rate of N800 for the assessment of import duty on all production inputs and also advocate a revisit of the recent Financial Reporting Council regulation to curtail its application to private businesses.

“We also call for the discontinuation of the Price Verification Portal as it is inimical to the smooth operation of businesses, and the basis for setting it up no longer exists. We are optimistic that the positive atmosphere created by the recent agreement between government and labour would facilitate speedy consideration and acceptance of the aforementioned,” he said. 

(NAN)