The National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS) has urged the government to immediately withdraw the 9,000 cedis minimum wage announced last week and further deliberate on the issue.

''It is inappropriate to prematurely state your stance rigidly to the general public while negotiations were still in progress," a statement signed by Mr Edward Kofi Omane Boamah, NUGS President, said.

It also described the government's action as "a blatant deviation from the tenets of negotiations". The statement said NUGS had keenly followed the "marathon meetings" of the Tripartite Committee in their bid to arrive at an affordable and human-centred wage.

"As a country we quickly ascribe low productivity largely to inefficient labour without critically looking at other factors such as inefficient machinery, which do not contribute to high turnover but reduce work input".