"No BVN, no salary", Umahi cautions Workers.

By Mbam Ogodo, Abakaliki
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Ebonyi state Governor, Chief David Umahi has expressed dissatisfaction with the state account status and directed that public and civil servants who don't have Bank Verification Number( BVN) will not be paid November and December salaries.

The Governor made the declaration while receiving the Branch controller of the Central Bank, Abakaliki branch, Mr Adayi Chris Onah who paid him a courtesy visit at the EXCO chambers, Government House, Abakaliki.

He gave the directive following the Central Bank of Nigeria(CBN)'s declaration that Ebonyi ranks lowest in Financial Inclusion and Access in the South East.

He said: “anybody that doesn’t have BVN should not expect salary, no BVN no salary whether it is political or not. The Deputy Governor has BVN and I have BVN. So, any political appointee that doesn’t have BVN, no salary. Any Civil Servant that doesn’t have BVN or have incomplete BVN or intentionally gave out wrong BVN, I have noted that and such a person will not take salary until they have BVN.

“Commissioner for Local Government, you have to implement that immediately. No salary for the month of Novmebr, December until everybody has got a BVN, this is very important. So, some of you that have not opened account for the first time in your life, you now open account. They said Ebonyi is the least in bank account opening, it shouldn’t be”, he said.

Earlier, the Branch Controller of CBN, Adayi Chris Onah had told the State Executive Council that the Financial Acess Performance across Geo-political zones of the country showed that South East has average exclusion rate of 29.3%.

He noted that Ebonyi state has 43.6% exclusion rate which is above the national average of 36.8% and the region average of 29.3%.

The Controller further revealed that other states in the zone are recording an average of between 25.4%-28.7%.

He noted that the low inclusion rate was why the bank chose the state as pilot state for it's account opening week program in the SouthEast.

He said the program would commence from December 2-7, 2019.

Onah said the state government has accessed over N12bn through various interventions of the bank while some other individuals and companies in the state also accessed over N4bn.

Meanwhile, Umahi also announced appointments of more 513 aides designated as Technical Assistants(TAs).

He had last three months appointed over 1,000 aides including the Technical Assistants (TAd), Senior Technical Assistants(STAs), Executive Assistants(EAs), Commissioners, Senior Special Assistants and Special Assistants.

A statement from his Principal Secretary(PS), Clement Nweke directed the newly appointed 513 TAs to report to the office of the Principal Secretary with their credentials for documentation.