The 2024 minimum wage Bill signed into law by President Bola Tinubu marks the seventh time Nigeria will be having a minimum wage Act or Decree as the case may be, since 1981.
But, the 2024 law is the lowest in US Dollar terms compared to the previous ones.
A background check shows that in 1981, when the first Minimum wage was negotiated at N125, one US Dollar exchanged for N0.724kobo, with the Naira having an edge over the Dollar.
By 1991, when the Minimum wage was increased to N250, the Naira began a slide, with One US Dollar exchanging for N8.
When a new national Minimum wage was agreed upon at N3,000 in 1998, which remains the highest increase so far, One Dollar exchanged for around N18
In the year 2000, the Minimum wage reviewed to N5, 500, as the Naira exchanged for N85.90.
Then N7,500 was the agreed Wage at the start of the second term in office of President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration in 2004, with One US Dollar exchanging for between N127 to N130.
In 2011, when President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration began its first full term in office, the Minimum wage was negotiated at N18,000, and, by this time, One US Dollar was exchanging for N151.05
It was later, the turn of President Muhammadu Buhari whose administration signed N30,000 as National Minimum wage in 2019, with a five year review period. At that time, the exchange rate had jumped to N363 to a US Dollar.
Again, on July 29, 2024, a new National Minimum wage of N70,000 has been signed into law by incumbent President Bola Tinubu, but the exchange rate is the worst in decades, with a US Dollar exchanging at around N1,600, making it the lowest Minimum wage in the Nigerian history.
ait.live quotes several respondents as saying that the new Minimum wage now signed into law, still remains a far cry from a living wage of the average Nigerian worker, in an economy battered by inflation.
Editor: Ken Eseni
