Nigerian governors will meet on Tuesday to take a position on the vexed issue of the minimum wage.
The extended meeting of the Economic Management Team on Monday at the State House, which had four governors in attendance, ended without any agreement on any amount as the minimum wage.
Governor of Zamfara State, Abdulaziz Yari, who spoke to State House correspondents after the meeting, said the governors would, at the meeting on Tuesday, discuss the figures presented by the organised labour.
According to him, the figure was presented at Monday’s meeting by Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige.
He said the meeting of the governors, under the aegis of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum, would take a position on minimum wage.
Yari insisted that governors were “willing to pay the amount presented to the tripartite committee negotiating the minimum wage but the issue is the muscle, the capacity to pay.”
He said the governors would be meeting on Tuesday “to digest what the bill contains and then discuss about it and then we come up with our own position as governors.”
Organised labour had embarked on a warning strike late September, asking government to state its position on the issue of minimum wage.
Labour had insisted that N30,000.00 has been agreed as the minimum wage, a figure that Ngige said had not been agreed on.
Labour has also threatened to commence an indefinite strike on November 6 if government and employers fail to decide on a new minimum wage.