Umahi approves N30, 000 minimum wage, urges citizens to prepare to pay tax.
Ebonyi State Governor, Chief David Umahi has restated his commitment to pay the N30, 000 New National Minimum wage for the State civil servants but urged the people to be prepared and ready to pay tax.
Addressing workers during the May 1st Workers Day Celebration at the Pa Ngele Oruta Township Stadium, Governor Umahi promised to continue to work for the welfare of workers in the years ahead.
He said that he will send the proposal to the state House of Assembly to appropriate the increment in workers salary which will be followed by stakeholders meeting.
The Governor also said that to enable him to pay the salary, he will review the school fees being paid by students in Ebonyi state University and Ebonyi state College of Education, Ikwo adding that he cannot just be a governor to be paying salaries only.
"In my presentation, I did make promise that our state shall not be the first and will shall not be last to pay the new national minimum wage. So I therefore approve the new minimum wage for our civil servants in the state”
Governor Umahi further said his administration placed high premium on workers’ welfare, adding “in my administration, all I have done in the last four years was to address your challenges and develop workable blueprint to address your problems and I am happy to say that withint the years under review, a tremendous milestones have been achieved in terms of prioritizing your welfare”
“Without boring you with the obvious, it has been my opinion thatw orkers in this country are not yet at their best in terms of beingt aken care of, but with various programmes I initiated in my administration, I can beat my chest to say that we were not oblivious of these challenges staring you in the face but we have initiated measures to ameliorate your sufferings”
“My administration has increased workers’ salaries by 5 percent in the face of the dwindling federal allocation accruable to states with Ebonyi at the lowest ebb. Beyond the increment in workers’ salaries, we have given workers over N4b loan to access to go into agriculture to help them as no amount of wage increase can address the conflicting priorities of workers in this country.
Earlier in his address, the Chairman of Nigeria Labour Congress, Ebonyi State, Comrade Leo Nkah commended the Governor for approving necessary welafare allowances and appealed for speedy implementation of the New Pension Law act of 2014.
He said Civil servants in the state are mostly grateful to the governor for listening to their pleas and thanked him for the provision of N4b for civil servants to access to help them go into agriculture to sustain their living.