

… Directs Immediate Implementation Of New Minimum Wage
By Bassey Nkponam
UYO
The Akwa Ibom government has approved an annual verification of civil servants and retirees on the state government pensions payroll.
The approval was sequel to the adoption of the official report of the recently concluded personnel verification submitted by the Implementation Committee on the New Minimum Wage, Monday, recommending a yearly verification of workers in the State government employ, as well as retirees on the state government pensions payroll.
Recall that the Implementation Committee on the New Minimum Wage was constituted by the governor on December 2024 to ensure a smooth roll out of the newly announced N80, 000 minimum wage as approved by the State government.
The State governor, Pastor Umo Eno, while receiving the committee’s report from its chairman and head of Civil Service, Elder Effiong Essien, at Government House, Uyo, also approved immediate payment of the new minimum wage to the 45,984 verified workers in the government employ with accruing backlog.
Eno, who made reference to the details of the report as against the baseline data of 55,120 personnel in the civil service, with 52,177 going for verification, out of which 45,984 were duly verified, directed the State Accountant General and all relevant departments of government to ensure timely payment of January salaries to the 45,984 verified civil servants with arrears of the variation from November 1, 2024.
He thanked the committee for taking the time to deliver on their assignment, saying, “As I receive this report today, my understanding is that before now, we had a staff strength of 55,120. Out of that, 52,177 persons turned out for the verification exercise, so we still have an outstanding of 2,943 personnel who did not show up, while 6,193 have issues with their verification.
“Having received this report today, I will be signing this off to the Office of the Accountant General, Auditor General, and the Director of Budget to come up with the memo that they are ready to implement.
“For those who have been cleared, about 45,984 of them, we should be ready to pay the minimum wage at the end of this month, effective from November 1, 2024”.
He said the decision to fully implement the new minimum wage was strategic to help stimulate the economy of the State and cushion the effect of the harsh economic environment on the people, in addition to other measures put in place by his administration given the critical mass of the State’s workforce which civil servants represent.
“The Civil Service forms a critical mass of employees in our state government. Since we came on board, their welfare has remained a key priority, and we will continue to do so. I believe this will help ameliorate the harsh economic environment we have found ourselves in, and I hope, by the grace of God, slowly, we will find our way out of it very soon”.
Eno granted 30-day grace period without pay to workers yet to be verified, to do the required documentations, present themselves before the verification team and get duly verified or risk being considered as non-existent in the Akwa Ibom State Civil Service, while directing that their salaries be stopped from January, to compel compliance.
“For the people who are yet to be verified, we will give another 30 days. After that, we will end the exercise. If they don’t show up within the time specified, we will take it that they are not civil servants, and their salaries will be stopped.
“Another area we will run verification is the pension payments. If what we uncovered can happen with serving personnel, then you can imagine what may be happening where people have unfortunately passed and are still being paid. We need to quickly carry out the verification exercise in that area too. So I am not dissolving the Committee now; we will extend the life of the committee for another month”.
According to him, the premium given civil servants by his administration forms the basis through which their welfare is of very great significance, recalling that government has tried to prioritise that and will continue to do so.
Eno said government has done a lot in terms of palliatives, distributing food items, supporting SMEs and farmers, promoting trade, and embarked on several humanitarian programmes to ensure that it cushions the effect of the economic situation in the State.
The governor noted that his administration has attempted to pay gratuity on a monthly basis, a gesture he said was not so to a large extent since 2012, expressing hope that more would be cleared.
The State chief executive officer enjoined the leadership of the organised labour to be patriotic to the State and cooperate with government to sanitise the system and move the state forward.
Presenting the report to the governor on behalf of the committee, the head of Civil Service and chairman of the committee, Elder Effiong Essien, applauded Eno’s initiative in recommending the personnel verification exercise and relayed the committee’s appreciation to the governor for the opportunity to serve.
Essien said the committee was adherent to the task of verifying all civil servants on the State government personnel list and working out modalities for the implementation of the N80,000 minimum wage approved by the governor.
He noted that out of the 55,120 civil servants on record, 52,177, representing 94.7 per cent of the workforce were present for the exercise, while 2,943, representing 5.3 per cent, were absent.
According to the head of civil service, out of the 52,177 workers that turned up for the exercise, 45,984 passed the minimum verification requirements, while 6,193 have minor issues to clear before undergoing another verification.
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