…increases social register enrolment to 260,000
Peter Mbah, governor of Enugu State, has announced cash awards of between N10,000 and N25,000 to the state workers till April 2024.
He said the new minimum wage negotiation would soon be concluded, according to a statement on Wednesday.
Mbah said the welfare of workers remained the priority of his administration, adding that his goals for Enugu could not be attained without a happy workforce.
He also announced an increase in the state social register enrolment from 43,000 to 260,000, promising to lift more indigent citizens through cash transfers and other social interventions.
He made these known during a joint media briefing with the state’s labour leaders at the Government House, Enugu on Wednesday, saying the administration was also making other social interventions apart from the cash transfer to better the lives of workers.
He said: “As you may be aware, since the removal of the petroleum subsidy, we have been in constant negotiation with the labour unions in the state, crafting a way forward on how we can provide palliatives to our teeming workforce.
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“So, by the time you put a monetary value to all the social services we have provided, it will weigh well above N100,000 minimum wage.”
Mbah said that with effect from December, the government would make a flat payment to all categories of workers, beginning from local government to the primary and secondary school teachers, and civil servants.
He said: “We are going to categorise them, and there will be flat payment of between N10,000 and 25,000, depending on the category. That payment is going to continue till April.
“Our hope is that by the end of April, the committee that is reviewing the minimum wage would have come out with what would then become the new minimum wage in the state. So, from there, we are just going to carry on the implementation of what is then set as the minimum wage.”
Mbah reiterated the determination of his administration to achieve zero per cent poverty headcount index by 2031, saying the state had set aside N1.5 billion for social development programmes like water and sanitation in the communities in addition to constructing 260 model primary healthcare centres and 260 smart schools with accompanying teachers’ quarters.
“Importantly, the state is just concluding the update of our social register. We have now expanded our social register from 43,000 to accommodate up to 260,000 indigent people in our state. That is also a platform that we are going to use to do cash transfers to engage our indigent ones,” he added.
