Workers Day: Even ₦1m minimum wage will mean nothing without fixing Naira value – Osifo

As Nigerian workers join their counterparts around the world to mark this year’s Workers’ Day, the President of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), Festus Osifo, has stressed the need for the Federal Government to ensure that the naira is properly valued.

Osifo argued that the Nigerian currency is currently undervalued, adding that discussions on increasing the minimum wage should go hand in hand with efforts to fix the value of the naira.

Speaking on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief on Friday, Osifo said that only when both issues are addressed simultaneously will they have a meaningful impact on the purchasing power of Nigerian workers.

According to him, even an increase of the minimum wage to ₦1 million will not have much impact, if the naira value is not fixed.

“It is a double edge approach, even as we are fixing the value of the naira, we could also be having conversations around the minimum wage. It’s kind of mutually exclusive, they are not independent, you mustn’t finish one before progressing to the other.

“But what we are saying is that, if you address both of them at the same time it has a direct impact on the purchasing power of the naira because for us, it’s not just about the volume. You can come today and say that the Nigerian minimum wage is ₦1 million, but what is actually the value of that ₦1 million, can that ₦1 million purchase?

“So, if you don’t fix the fundamentals and you are just talking about minimum wage alone, it may not necessarily have the right purchasing power that it ought to have. So, what we are saying is that fix everything holistically and this can actually be done,” Osifo said.

The minimum wage for Nigerian workers is currently ₦70,000, which was signed into law by President Bola Tinubu in 2024 after months of negotiations with labour leaders.

However, following the recent war in Iran and its impact on the global economy, particularly the increase in oil prices, the purchasing power of workers has further been eroded.

The TUC President has lamented that despite Nigeria’s oil production, rising global oil prices have not reduced workers’ hardship. Instead, he said they have increased inflation, weakened the naira, and raised the cost of living.

He therefore called for stronger labour policies to address wage disparity and casualisation.