The Vanguard newspaper reports that there are ndications emerged yesterday that the Federal Government and organised labour are heading for a showdown over a new minimum wage as the 6th meeting of the Tripartite Committee on the new National Minimum Wage, NNMW, ended in another stalemate.
Organised labour’s negotiating team for the second time in two weeks, however, walked out of the committee meeting after the Federal Government increased its offer to N60,000 from the N57,000 it offered on Wednesday, May 22.
Organised Labour, represented by the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, and its Trade Union Congress of Nigeria, TUC, counterpart, had on May 15, walked out of the tripartite committee meeting after the government offered N48,000 and Organised Private Sector, OPS, offered N54,000, against the N615,000 minimum wage demand by labour.
It will be recalled that at last week’s meeting, the government and the private sector offered N57,000, while Labour reduced its demand from N615, 000 to N497, 000.
However, at the resumed meeting yesterday, the government and the OPS added N3,000 to last week’s offers of N57,000, thereby raising their offers to N60, 000.
Labour immediately followed the footsteps of the government and OPS to reduce its demand by N3,000, bringing it down to N494, 000 before walking out.
Labour had given government up till May 31, to conclude negotiations to avoid industrial disharmony.
The newspaper says that the Nigerian Government has called on Nigerian businesses and manufacturers to use the ECOWAS Trade Liberalisation Scheme (ETLS) treaty to boost the country’s export basket.
The Minister of External Affairs, Maitama Tuggar, said this at a one-day Sensitisation Workshop on the ECOWAS Trade Liberalisation Scheme (ETLS) in Awka, Anambra State, with the theme, “Exploring the benefit of ECOWAS trade liberalisation scheme in the region”.
Tuggar, represented by Amb. Obinna Onuwu, the Director of International Organisations in the ministry, said ETLS would give local manufacturers access to a market of over 400 million consumers across the 15 ECOWAS member states.
The ETLS initiative of ECOWAS aimed to enhance cooperation and integration in trade, ensuring economic stability by creating an economic union within the region for the well-being of the community’s citizens.
According to Tuggar, it will also expand their customer base, boost revenues, and significantly contribute to the nation’s overall economic growth and prosperity.
“Presently, Nigeria has 946 enterprises with over 10,000 products and the primary goal is to establish a customs union among all member states, with the ultimate objective of completely eliminating Customs duties and implementing a unified customs policy.
“It represents an ideal opportunity to foster greater economic integration and unlock the immense potential of intra-regional trade.”
The Punch reports that the equity market sustained its bullish trend on Tuesday as investors gained N294bn.
At the close of trading, the market capitalisation of the Nigerian Exchange and the All-Share Index rose by 0.53 per cent to settle at N55.65tn and 98,383.04 basis points, respectively.
Market participation also increased as the volume of traded units increased by 52.49 per cent to 559,608,966 units.
Bullish activity dominated the day’s trade with the exchange recording more gainers at 28 than losers at 14.
Among the notable losers in the equity market were Sovereign Trust Insurance which lost 9.52 per cent to close at N0.38, Universal Insurance Plc shed 8.33 per cent to close trading at N0.33 and The Initiate Plc lost per cent to close at N 1.71.
Leading the gainers’ chart was Dangote Sugar with a 10 per cent appreciation to N42.90, Morison Industries Plc stocks rose by 9.88 per cent to close at N4.45 and National Salt Company gained 9.88 per cent to close trading at N37.25 per share.
Seplat Energy Plc was the most traded securities by value, amounting to N1.60bn worth of shares exchanged in 51 deals, while Abbey Mortgage Bank led the volume chart with 277,527,586 units traded in eight deals.
On the sectoral front, five indexes gained and one index dipped, indicating good performance across sectors.
Buy interest in UBA, First Bank Holdings, Seplat, and Japaul Gold and Ventures Plc helped the Banking and Oil and Gas indexes to rise 2.4 per cent and 1.9 per cent, respectively.
Similarly, the consumer goods and insurance indexes increased by 1.1 per cent and 0.7 per cent, respectively.
The newspaper says that the Nigerian Government on Tuesday said it had reinstated the suspended social investment programme, disclosing the scheme would provide direct payments to 75 million Nigerians in 50 million households to reduce the suffering of citizens, especially vulnerable groups.
It stated that the cash transfer programme was overhauled to tackle fraud.
The Minister of Finance and the Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, announced this at the ministerial sectoral briefing to mark the first year in office of the President Bola Tinubu administration in Abuja.
On January 12, Tinubu suspended all the programmes administered by the National Social Investment Programme Agency for six weeks, as part of a probe of alleged malfeasance in the management of the agency and the scheme.
The president also suspended Betta Edu as the minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation on January 8. Edu’s ministry supervises the operations of the NSIPA.
The intervention programmes affected include the N-Power, the conditional cash transfer scheme, the government enterprise and empowerment programme, and the home-grown school feeding initiative.
On March 13, the House of Representatives asked the federal government to resume the implementation of the suspended social investment initiatives.
GIK/APA