UPDATE 1-Nigeria to recommend 50 pct minimum wage - minister

Nigeria is to send a bill recommending a national minimum monthly wage rise of 50 percent to 27,000 naira ($88) to lawmakers in the national assembly, the labour minister said on Tuesday. Cost of living is a major campaign issue ahead of a presidential election on 16 February and unions want the minimum wage to be raised from 18,000 naira.

Inflation stood at a seven-month high of 11.44 percent in December. Disagreements over the minimum wage saw labour unions striking across Nigeria in September.

President Muhammadu Buhari said in January that he would increase the minimum wage, but did not specify by how much. "The 27,000 naira minimum wage is the benchmark," Labour Minister Chris Ngige told reporters in Abuja on Tuesday.

Ngige said some government workers could receive a higher salary of 30,000 naira a month. The minister did not say when the bill would be sent to lawmakers. Any change would need to be signed into law by Buhari.

($1 = 306.3000 naira) (Reporting by Felix Onuah; Writing by Alexis Akwagyiram; Editing by Catherine Evans and Andrew Cawthorne)