Why gatemen, drivers, apprentices can't earn less than ₦70K - Akpabio

Senate President Godswill Akpabio has announced that employers must now pay their employees a minimum wage of ₦70,000.

He highlighted that this regulation applies to all employers, including small-scale operators and those in informal sectors such as domestic work and tailoring, who must comply with the minimum wage when hiring new workers.

Akpabio made this declaration while enacting the new minimum wage bill into law on the Senate floor.

"If you're a tailor and you employ additional hands, you can't pay the person below ₦70,000. If you have a housemaid, you cannot pay them below ₦70,000. If you hire a driver or a gateman, you cannot pay them below ₦70,000," he said.

On Wednesday, July 23, the Senate approved the bill to amend the National Minimum Wage Act of 2019, raising the minimum wage from ₦30,000 to ₦70,000.

At the plenary, the lawmakers also agreed to shorten the period for reviewing the National Minimum Wage from five years to three years.

Ndume kicks against new minimum wage

Meanwhile, the embattled lawmaker from Borno State, Senator Ali Ndume, has refused to back down from his criticism of President Bola Tinubu, this time condemning the government's approval of ₦70,000 as the new minimum wage for workers.

"People are suffering, people are angry, people are not happy. I am happy that yesterday, the President agreed with NLC to increase the salary to ₦70,000, which is a good move, but it takes more than that because, realistically, that is like a bag of rice, money that will buy a bag of rice or cover the cost of a bag of rice.

"So, I call on the president to still open up and listen to the people," Ndume said in a video posted by Channels Television last Friday.