Abuja, Sept 23, 2026 – The Federal Government has started consultations ahead of fresh negotiations on the new national minimum wage.
Kamil Shoretire, the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment, disclosed this at a capacity-building workshop for labour correspondents in Abuja on Tuesday.
He said the federal government had started background discussions on a new minimum wage ahead of the formal negotiations.
Recall that the trade unions under the Joint National Public Service Negotiating Council (JNPSNC) are already demanding for N500,000 new minimum wage.
The unions have also called for the immediate constitution of a committee to negotiate a new national minimum wage.
Shoretire said details of government’s proposals would be made public when formal negotiations begin.
“We are yet to announce the timetable for that, but background discussions are already ongoing. When it’s time to get the press involved in what has been proposed and what is being negotiated, it will be revealed to you,” he said.
“Various discussions with health, education and other sectors that have lots of issues in terms of wages and allowances are ongoing and they are being fast-tracked so that the ones that are agreed will reflect in next year’s budget,” he said.
Shoretire said the Federal Government had responded to a complaint lodged at the International Labour Organisation (ILO) by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC).
He said Nigeria met the September 1 deadline given by the ILO to respond to outstanding issues arising from the complaint.
“Let me start with the ILO. We have met the deadline. We have responded to the request from ILO. I was there when a complaint was filed by the NLC against Nigerian government at the ILO on some of the labour issues that are yet to be resolved in the country.
“We responded at the ILO, but we also got that certain areas were not addressed or were pending. So, those ones were the ones that we got a deadline on September 1, and we have responded accordingly,” he said.
The NLC had petitioned the ILO over alleged violations of workers’ rights under the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949, otherwise known as Convention No. 98.