The new N70,000 minimum wage adopted by the federal government after consultation with organised labour will be reviewed after three years.

Mohammed Idris, Minister of Information and National Orientation, said this while addressing State House correspondents.

He disclosed this after the meeting between representatives of the federal government led by President Bola Tinubu and the organised labour.

The minister also said Mr Tinubu agreed that the national minimum wage review would no longer be done every five years.

Mr Idris also said Mr Tinubu would perfect the proposal on the new minimum wage in a bill to be forwarded to the National Assembly next week.

“The new national minimum wage that we expect to be submitted to the National Assembly for legislation is N70,000.

“But that is not all. Mr President has assured of massive investment in infrastructure. There is also a deepening of the investment of the Federal Government in renewable energy,” he said.

Mr Idris said to complement the new minimum wage, the federal government would ramp up the rollout of compressed natural gas-powered buses to check the high cost of transportation.

He said efforts were also being made to improve the economy and reduce inflation, including the recent directive on the suspension of duty on certain food imports to bring down the prices of food items.

Nkeiruka Onyejeocha, Minister of State for Labour, said the issue of minimum wage was not that of the law and not who was right or who would blink first.

“He said that he is our father, like he has always said. That, first and foremost, the review of this minimum wage policy has to be reduced to three years, that five years is too long a time to get any minimum wage review.

“And, of course, that labour should look at the indices of the economy and accept N70,000, minimum wage,” she said.

Joe Ajaero, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) president, said the unions agreed to the new minimum wage, shifting ground from their original N250,000 proposal.

“The amount of N70,000 happens to be where we are now. But the good thing about it is that we will not wait for another five years to come for review.

“Rather than settling on a figure that we wait for five years, it is like we’ll have to now negotiate even two times within five years, with a view to going up.

“That is one of the reasons we decided to reach where we are today. Because of the proviso that we can review in the next three years,” he said.

He also spoke about Thursday’s strike by the Joint Action Committee of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities and the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions.

Mr Ajaero said the president had asked the agencies concerned to work out the modalities for the payment of those workers in the universities.

Festus Osifo, president of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), said the catch on the approved wage was the issue of a five-year review, which labour had been pushing for.

“The next review will be in three years. And after that, pronouncement; we from labour have received what the president has promised from both ends,” he said.

The N70,000 minimum wage is about a 133 per cent increase over the old minimum wage of N30,000, which came into effect in 2019.

(NAN)