By Adedapo Adesanya
The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) has asked that Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) be exempted from paying the new N70,000 minimum wage, given their incapacity and prevailing operational challenges.
The group in a statement commended President Bola Tinubu for achieving the breakthrough on the long-awaited minimum wage for Nigerian workers.
However, the Director-General, Mr Segun Ajayi-Kadir, while reacting to the N70,000 minimum wage agreement by President Tinubu and leaders of labour unions on Thursday in Abuja, said small businesses can’t afford the level based on recent economic challenges.
The MAN DG stated that manufacturers looked forward to the promised assistance, urging the private sector to hold onto the President’s promise in this regard to enable the private sector board with the agreement.
“In this regard, I would assume that reference would be made to the demands made by the Organised Private Sector at the concluding stage of the tripartite negotiations.
“We had intimated to the committee the challenges confronting businesses in the private sector and that there was the need to ameliorate those challenges to improve the capacity of our members to pay the minimum wage that we offered.
“We maintained that those binding constraints may constitute impediments to the full compliance of our members when the minimum wage is signed into law.
“So, the assumption is that Mr President will give expedited consideration to those challenges and take necessary steps to address them.
“This will go a long way in onboarding the private sector in the new agreement on the minimum wage,” he said.
Mr Ajayi-Kadir presented a list of demands to enable the private sector to take on payments of the new minimum wage.
He said that Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) should be exempted from compliance given their incapacity and prevailing operational challenges.
He added that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) should redeem all validly transacted outstanding foreign exchange forwards for companies in the productive sector.
Mr Ajayi-Kadir called for the reversal of the increase in electricity tariffs or only a 100 per cent increase in electricity tariff for a minimum of 20 hours of supply.
He proposed duty exemption on imported conversion kits, government subsidy on procurement of same and a freeze on the introduction of new taxes on businesses for the next five years.
“We call for a fixed rate of N800 for the assessment of import duty on all production inputs and also advocate a revisit of the recent Financial Reporting Council regulation to curtail its application to private businesses.
“We also call for the discontinuation of the Price Verification Portal as it is inimical to the smooth operation of businesses and the basis for setting it up no longer exists.
“We are optimistic that the positive atmosphere created by the recent agreement between government and labour would facilitate speedy consideration and acceptance of aforementioned,” he said.
