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Under Nigeria’s current minimum wage law, persons working in Micro enterprises would not be eligible for any minimum wage increase, because Micro Enterprises employ less than 10 persons, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) classifications.
Over 87 million Nigerians live in extreme poverty on less than the equivalent of two dollars a day. Following months of political bickering and threats of strike action by Labour unions, the Nigerian government announced a new monthly minimum wage raise of approximately 66.67 percent from 18,000 Naira (50USD) to 30,000 Naira (83USD). Despite the increase in minimum wage, Nigeria remains the lowest paying country among the emerging economies using the case of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa). It is important to note that the values used for the BRICS economies were mostly 2018 estimates as against the 2019 estimates used for Nigeria. The value of 18,000 Naira in 2011 was (120USD) when it was enacted and as such there is a significant difference of about 37 USD in the actual value of the increase. Despite this difference, the government has been struggling with implementing this new wage, which at the least could stimulate aggregate demand and ultimately growth.
Demonstrations and protests from labour unions seeking an upward review of the N18,000 minimum wage yielded positive gains as President Muhammadu Buhari signed a new minimum wage of 30,000 naira for the workers in April.
