Following President Bola Tinubu announcement of the approval of N70, 000 minimum wage for Nigerian workers with Labour Unions, the Organised Private Sector of Nigeria (OPSN), has kicked against meeting the agreed N70, 000 minimum wage, saying it can only afford to pay the N62,000 minimum wage earlier approved by the tripartite committee comprising the government, labour and the private sector.
The OPSN, which comprised business membership organisations, namely: Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA), Nigeria Employers Consultative Association (NECA), Nigerian Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (NASME) and Nigerian Association of Small Scale Industrialists (NASSI), applauded the truce reached by the Federal Government and the organised labour unions, but insisted that its doors are opened for the President’s promises to find ways to assist the private sector and the sub-nationals to pay the minimum wage.
In his reaction to the approved N70,000 minimum wage by government for Nigerian workers, the MAN Director-General, Mr Segun Ajayi-Kadir, explained that the challenges confronting businesses in the private sector, have made it an herculean task for the private sector group to pay the N70,000 minimum wage in the country’s private sector.
Ajayi-Kadir said that those binding constraints may constitute impediments to the full compliance of its members when the minimum wage is signed into law, thus calling for the government’s rethink in the whole process.
According to him, the government needed to address the pressing issues bedevilling the private sector operations in the country, saying the private sector group was presenting a list of demands to the government that would give them the capacities to pay the new agreement on the minimum wage.
He said: “It has just been announced that President Bola Tinubu approved a new minimum wage of N70,000 for Nigerian workers and pledged to review the national minimum wage law every three years.
“The President also promised to find ways to assist the private sector and the sub-nationals to pay the minimum wage.
“As you are aware, the final outcome of the tripartite committee comprising the government, labour and the private sector, was a stalemate at N62,000 offered by the Federal Government and the private sector on the one hand, and N250,000 by labour on the other.
“To this end, the OPSN presented a list of demands including the following: SMEs and MSMEs should be exempted from compliance in view of their incapacity and prevailing operational challenges.
“CBN redemptions of all validly transacted outstanding forex forwards for companies in the productive sector.
“The reversal of increase in electricity tariffs OR only 100% increase in electricity tariff for a minimum of 20 hours of supply.
“And duty exemption on imported conversion kits and government subsidy on procurement of same; a freeze on introduction of new taxes on businesses for the next five years and fixed rate of N800 for the assessment of import duty on all production inputs.
“Revisit of the recent Financial Reporting Council regulation to curtail its application to private businesses.