Opinion

After over a year of negotiations, labour unions, the Federal Government and States appear to have come to an agreement to adjust the minimum wage to N30,000/month. This represents an increase of 66.7% over the current minimum wage of N18,000/month. Local media reports state that the proposed wage is yet to receive final approval from President Buhari, but we expect the President to approve it given that the FG and state governments led the negotiations.

The Word Bank has approved a grant of $611 million to strengthen Universal Basic Education and tackle challenges in education sector in Nigeria.

The Minister of Education, Alhaji Adamu Adamu, commended Word Bank for the initiative on Wednesday at the launch of Better Education Service Delivery For All (BESDA) in Birinin Kebbi .

The minister, who was represented by the Vice Chancellor, Federal University Birnin Kebbi, Prof. Bello Sheahu, said the government was grateful to the bank for the grant.

The Global Fund, an International Financing Organisation, has announced an additional humanitarian grant of 660 million dollars to tackle HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria epidemic in Nigeria.

Its Executive Director, Mr Peter Sands, announced this at a news conference on Wednesday in Abuja.

Sands noted that the grant was expected to last for a three-year period to include more people on the treatment of the diseases.

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) published the Q1:2018 Gross Domestic Product data earlier in the week announcing an expansion in real output of 1.95% Y-o-Y. This aligns with consensus expectations of a positive growth as the economy recorded the 4th consecutive quarterly increase since recovery from the economic recession in Q2:2017. This successive growth in output of 1.95% in Q1:2018 reflects a stronger increase of 2.87ppts relative to the first quarter of 2017 (-0.91%) but a slower growth when compared with the preceding quarter (2.11% in Q4:2017).