Eight-week timeline to agree minimum wage with unions in Nigeria

Nigeria's main labour unions and the government on Monday set an eight-week timeline to finalise an agreement to raise the minimum wage to help cushion the impact of high fuel prices after the removal of a popular but costly petrol subsidy.

The Nigeria Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) had threatened to strike after fuel prices tripled following President Bola Tinubu's decision to scrap the subsidy.

Talks with the unions are one of the first challenges the new administration faces as it pushes forward with a raft of economic reforms.

The parties agreed to set up work groups whose terms of reference will be agreed later on Tuesday with some expected to start submitting their reports next week.

"Both parties went through the list (of demands) and we ticked off the viable ones which are now broken into three categories; those that can be given immediate attention, those that can be achieved in the medium term, and long term," said Dele Alake, a spokesman for the president, said.

TUC President Festus Osifo said the process would be completed in eight weeks.

"Everything must be rolled out within that time, (it is) not something that we are going to leave endlessly," he said.

The parties will reconvene on June 26.

Tinubu, who took office last month, is embarking on Nigeria's biggest reforms in decades, seeking to tackle low growth, high debt burden, rising inflation and mounting insecurity in Africa's largest economy.

In 2012, a wave of strikes and protests ensued when the government tried to end the subsidy, with authorities eventually backtracking. Tinubu, then in the opposition, was among those who opposed the measure.

By Camilus Eboh, Reuters

President Tinubu Names Nuhu Ribadu to Oversee Security Agencies in Nigeria

Nigerian President Bola Tinubu named new security chiefs to replace those he inherited from former President Muhammadu Buhari as he continues to put together a team to implement pledges made during his campaign.

Nuhu Ribadu, a former chairman of the country’s anti-corruption agency, will be national security adviser. Ribadu, who last week was named special adviser on security, will now take up a more senior role as coordinator of the country’s security agencies. New heads were also appointed for the army, navy, air force and police.

The security chiefs must contend with rising turmoil that has ravaged Africa’s most populous country, including a decade-long insurgency perpetrated by Islamist extremists and bandits in the north, as well as an increasingly violent secessionist movement in the southern part of the country.

Hadiza Bala Usman, former managing director of Nigeria Ports Authority, was appointed a special adviser for policy coordination, while Hannatu Musawa will serve a similar role for culture and the entertainment economy.

Tinubu named eight others to advisory roles last week, including Wale Edun, former chair of Lagos-based investment bank Chapel Hill Denham Group, as his senior adviser on monetary policy.

Three weeks into a four-year term, Tinubu has already made several key decisions, including ending a fuel subsidy that cost $10 billion last year, removing a controversial central bank governor and promising to unify a web of varying exchange rates. The moves have helped lead to a rally in dollar bonds and the stock market climbing to a 15-year high.

By Ruth Olurounbi, Reuters

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