
Pedestrians pass city office buildings in Lagos, Nigeria, on Wednesday, July 26, 2017. Nigeria's economy, which in 2016 suffered its first full-year recession since 1987, will probably return to growth in 2017. Photographer: Tom Saater/Bloomberg

INTERNATIONAL - Nigerian labour is flexing its muscle before an election, winning a large increase in the minimum wage despite investor concerns about the oil-exporting nation’s deteriorating budget balances.
The Nigeria Labour Congress, one of Africa’s biggest unions, called off its threat to hold a nationwide strike from Tuesday after winning a 66 percent increase for its 4 million members, spokesman Benson Upah said by phone from Abuja, the capital. A report on the agreement to raise the wage to a monthly 30,000 naira ($83) will be presented to President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday afternoon, he said.
While there’s justification for the move given the naira has halved in value since the last increase, “it is unclear if the government has the revenues to pay this higher wage," said Charles Robertson, chief economist at Renaissance Capital in London. “The government already spends too high a percentage of its revenues on recurrent expenditures like wages, and not enough on investment."