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| SPEAKER DOGARA |
The House of Representatives is set to review the
National Minimum Wage Act 2004 and the Allocation of Revenue Act 2004 with the
second reading passage of their respective Amendment Bills at plenary on
Wednesday.
The Bill for an Act to Amend the National Minimum
Wage Act CAP. N.16 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004 sponsored by Hon.
Peter Akpatason and if passed into law, seeks to exclude the establishments
that have foreign participation from the list of establishments exempted from
the payment of national minimum wage.
While a Bill for an Act to amend the Allocation
of Revenue (Federation Account, etc) Act 2004 and matters connected therewith
sponsored by Hon. Edward Pwajok, seeks to ensure that all Local Governments in
the States are democratically constituted before disbursements are made to such
states.
While leading the debate on the Bill to amend the
National Minimum Wage Act, Akpatason said in addition to broadening the scope
of participation to incorporate more categories of Nigerian workers eligible to
benefit from minimum wage payment, the proposed amendments also represent a
“clear demonstration of the determination of this 8th Assembly to timorously
address the issue of obsolete laws, in support of the ‘change’ agenda of this
government.”
One of the major amendments to the principal Act
is to substitute number of workers from 50 with 20 in Subsection 1(a) of the
Act, so any company that employs up to 20 workers will be eligible to pay the
mandatory minimum wage.
The Bill was subsequently passed for second
reading and referred to the relevant House committee for further legislative
inputs preparatory to its third reading and eventual passed into law.
Meanwhile, Hon. Pwajok while leading the debate
on the Amendment Bill for the Allocation Revenue Act, said there has been a
loud public outcry on the abuse of the money allocated to the Local Governments
in the country by state governments.
He added that the Bill if passed to law, aims at
deepening democracy and ensuring respect for the Constitution by all tiers of
government.
CREDIT: LEADERSHIP
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