Soludo approves new minimum wage for Anambra workers

Governor Charles Soludo of Anambra State has approved N70,000 as a new minimum wage for workers in the state.

Mr Soludo announced this in a post on his Facebook handle on Friday.

“This (Friday) evening, I held the final meeting with the State Committee on Implementation of Minimum Wage – including 56 leaders of the organised labour.

“We approved the proposal by organised labour to ensure that the minimum take-home for a worker – after all deductions, including tax and union dues – is at least N70,000 per month. The gross salary could range from N78,000 to N84,000,” he said.

The governor said he equally approved “a monthly, non-taxable cash award of N10,000 to our pensioners.”

He said cash reward is in addition to the retirees’ monthly pension.

The announcement came hours after Enugu State Governor Peter Mbah announced N80,000 as the new minimum wage for workers in the state.

Demand for new minimum wage

The Nigerian government and the Organised Labour—the Nigeria Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress—agreed in July on N70,000 as the new minimum wage after a strike and protests.

The agreed N70,000 new minimum wage replaced the previous minimum wage of N30,000, which expired in April after five years.

On 29 July, President Bola Tinubu signed the new minimum wage bill into law, which provides that the federal and state governments as well as private sectors, will pay the new minimum wage.