Voice of Nigeria reports that Comrade Issa Aremu, the Director General of the Michael Imoudu National Institute of Labour Studies (MINILS), has called on the federal government to prioritise human resources within its economic reform agenda to foster sustainable growth and reduce poverty.

Aremu offered this advice during an interview with journalists at the third annual Kwara State conference of the Chartered Institute of Personnel Management of Nigeria (CIPM), held at MINILS in Ilorin.

Comrade Aremu said this is because “world wide, labour creates wealth” thus Human Resources should be both the “drivers” and “ends” of reform for sustainability.

While commending President Bola Tinubu for initiating inevitable reforms, he however said it was time to “rethink” monetary policies that have eroded purchasing power of working men and women through avoidable devaluation and rising inflation.

According to him, Nigeria faces the “twin crises of low compensation and low productivity” adding that it was time for a wage-led economic recovery for sustainable development.

“While I commend the CIPM for putting human resource at the centre of national discussion, because reforms are inevitable despite the challenges involved, however, these reforms can only be successful when we carry the human resource, the human beings, along. And in this case, I can say labour is at the heart of it because labour creates wealth”, he said.

“Because, it's only when you pay them for the work done that you can get the best out of them. There is a direct link with productivity and proper motivation of the work force,” he said.

While he commended President Tinubu and Federal Government, organised labour and the sub national for the new minimum wage implementation, Aremu however, said that minimum wage is not same as living wage, adding that through sectoral collective bargaining and social dialogue it was time for wage improvement that would guarantee adequate working and living conditions for enhanced productivity.

He called on government to promote more negotiations and collective bargaining in the respective sectors of the economy, in order to start talking about real adequate pay for workers.

“The minimum wage is significant, but in real terms when you take inflation and devaluation of the naira, you will see that the new minimum wage is even less than the old minimum wage”, he said.

He charged members of the CIPM and all labour market actors to make a case for appropriate monetary policy that would promote decent work real, as opposed to nominal purchasing power. He saying that stakeholders should relook at the monetary policy of wholesale floatation of naira, which he said is not appropriate for developing nation like Nigeria.

“Our currency needs to be well managed.There's no where in the word you allow your currency to be vagaries of the market forces. CBN should not only be targeting inflation, but target growth and purchasing power of the citizens.

“You're targeting inflation and you're hiking interest rate. Who can borrow money at 36% interest rate? And you allow naira to float in a way that drastically devalued the new minimum wage. So, what the President has commendably given with the right hand through collective bargaining with labour has been taken away by the left hand of devaluation. We should initiate monetary policies that will ill assist the President to eradicate poverty, lower inflation and ensure double digit growth rate.”

The MINILS Director General, who said that the conference, themed, “Human Resource Management in a VUCAR (volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous, and risky) World: Building Resilience and Agility”, challenged government to take labour market institutions dealing with human resource more serious though adequate funding and engagement.

“The Federal Government should make labour market institutions partners in the reform agenda of government,” he said.