AS Nigerian workers joined their counterparts across the world to commemorate this year’s Workers’ Day, the President of the Trade Union Congress, 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, maintaining that discussions surrounding an increase in the national minimum wage should go hand in hand with efforts to strengthen the value of the naira.
Speaking on Channels Television’s programme, The Morning Brief, on Friday monitored by News Point Nigeria, the TUC President said meaningful improvement in the welfare of Nigerian workers would only be achieved when both issues are addressed simultaneously.
According to him, even if the minimum wage is increased to ₦1 million, such an adjustment would have little impact if the value of the naira 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,” Osifo said.
“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,” he added.
Nigeria’s minimum wage is currently pegged at ₦70,000 following its approval and signing into law by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in 2024 after months of negotiations with labour unions.
However, Osifo noted that recent global economic developments, particularly the war involving Iran and its effect on international oil prices, have further weakened the purchasing power of Nigerian workers.
The TUC President lamented that despite Nigeria being an oil-producing country, rising global crude oil prices have failed to ease the hardship faced by workers.
Instead, he said the situation has worsened inflationary pressures, weakened the naira further, and increased the overall cost of living across the country.
Osifo therefore called for stronger labour policies aimed at addressing wage disparity and the growing challenge of casualisation in the workforce.
