NECA laments: Inflation erodes benefits of N70,000 minimum wage
Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA), has expressed concerns over rising costs of living, saying “the minimum wage of N70,000 has actually been eroded by the current realities.”
NECA’s Director-General, Adewale-Smatt Oyerinde was quoted by Vanguard saying, “Most private sector organisations, even before we agreed on N70,000, were paying above N70,000. The critical minority that were not paying up to N70,000, have done the needful after the law was passed to up the minimum wage to be in alignment with the law.
“Before we started the negotiation of minimum wage, the private sector had taken the bull by the horn to continue to support their staff. We know businesses that doubled the salary even before we started negotiating the minimum wage. We know businesses that started the hybrid kind of work, work three days in the office, work two days at home so that you can reduce the cost of transportation and reduce so many other costs associated with transportation, feeding and the rest.
“So for the private sector, it is a challenge because you really need to create an environment intrinsically to keep your staff motivated. You also need to create an environment that also supports them at the external level because an employee that is not happy at home hardly will come to work happy and hardly will you get the best from such employees.
“It has been a challenge for the private sector. The private sector has been able to come up with different innovations, different modes, different models, different mechanisms just to keep employees motivated, notwithstanding the squeeze that we are currently facing from the economy as it were.
“The cost of electricity went up after the minimum wage was discussed. The cost of transportation still remains challenging, notwithstanding the advent of the Compressed Natural Gas, CNG, buses. The challenges have not really gone, they still remain. So the expectation is that the reform will start bearing positive fruits.
“Those areas where government is reducing or removing subsidy, the money should be ploughed back into public infrastructure. Let the roads be motorable. Let there be an effective and efficient public transport system so that people do not have to take their cars if they don’t want to. They can enter an efficient public bus or the train. Let the money be ploughed back into security so that we can provide security in the hinterland so that the farmers can go to their farms, produce and harvest. The more the farmers can harvest, the more they can take their goods to the market. The natural consequence is that the prices of goods and services will come down. So if we address the wage goods – they call them wage goods – food, transportation and shelter. If you address those three critical issues, transportation through an effective mass transportation system, food and food security by creating an environment where farmers can plant, harvest, then shelter for individuals, you have significantly resolved the core challenges that an average person faces.
“So the minimum wage of N70,000 has actually been eroded by the current realities. But it is not a two plus two equals four argument. It is an engagement that stakeholders must not shy away from. We must continue to engage and we must continue to be innovative within the context of our engagement so that businesses will prosper, the workers will prosper and the nation eventually will prosper.”
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