The management of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) has denounced what it described as misleading information circulating in the media regarding the payment of ₦70,000 minimum wage to corps members.
A statement signed by the Director, Information and Public Relations of the Corps, Eddy Megwa, said corps members, parents and members of the public should note that no directive has been received from the relevant sector of government responsible to raise the allowance of corps members.
The statement explained that corps members already know the approved channel and mode of communication in the scheme and should therefore ignore misleading information accordingly.
The NYSC however admonishes corp members to desist from allowing mischief makers who are set to mislead Nigerians from continuing to play on their intelligence.
In 2020, the NYSC increased the allowances of corps members from ₦19,800 to ₦33,000, months after a new minimum wage bill of ₦30,000 was signed.
Late July, President Bola Tinubu signed the minimum wage bill into law, ending months of deliberations between government authorities, labour unions, and the private sector.
He signed it at the State House in Abuja days after the National Assembly National had passed the Minimum Wage Act, 2019 to increase the National Minimum Wage from ₦30,000 to ₦70,000.
“The signing of the minimum wage bill into law by His Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is both a promise kept and a demonstration of his people-centric governance model,” he said in a statement. “Tinubu promised to pay a living wage to Nigerian workers during his electioneering campaigns and he has kept that promise.”
President Tinubu’s move followed months of talks with labour unions which insisted on a new minimum in the wake of the fuel subsidy removal and the floating of the naira – both steps ballooning the cost of living.
Labour unions had initially proposed ₦494,000 as a new minimum wage with the government offering ₦60,000. After a series of negotiations, the workers demanded ₦250,000 while the government shifted grounds to N62,000.
But on July 18, the Federal Government and the unions reached a consensus figure of ₦70,000.
The ₦70,000 will also be reviewed every three years. After the truce, President Tinubu immediately transmitted the bill to the National Assembly for passage. The lawmakers wasted no time in doing that, passing the bill in one day.
The new law comes as the cost of living soars in Nigeria. The country’s inflation figure has hit 34 per cent in June, 2024, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
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