The new seventy thousand naira minimum wage adopted by the Federal Government after consultation with the Organised Labour will be reviewed after three years.

The government agreed that the national minimum wage review would no longer be done every five years.

Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris said this while addressing State House correspondents, after the meeting between representatives of the Federal Government led by President Bola Tinubu and the Organised Labour.

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

Idris said to complement the new minimum wage, the Federal Government would ramp up the rollout of Compressed Natural Gas-powered buses in order 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.

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

President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Joe Ajaero, said the labour 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 will not wait for another five years to come for review.

“Rather than settling on a figure that we wait for five years, 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 on strike embarked upon by the Joint Action Committee of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities and the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions.

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

President of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), Festus Osifo said the catch on the approved wage was the issue of five years review, which Labour had been pushing for.

Osifo noted that the next review will be in three years, and after that, pronouncement, we from labour we have received what the President has promised from both ends.

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

President Tinubu had met with Organised Labour over the new minimum wage last week where he declared that Nigerian workers deserved improved welfare, better wages, and safe and enhanced working conditions.

The President also said he was concerned about the welfare of Nigerian workers and that his administration was working on a wage that will beacceptable to all.