Akwa Ibom State Governor, Umo Eno, has directed the immediate implementation of the N80,000 minimum wage for 45,984 verified public servants in the state. This decision follows the submission of a report by the committee on the implementation of the new wage and personnel verification exercise, chaired by the Head of Service, Effiong Essien.
The governor noted that while 52,177 employees participated in the verification process, 2,943 staff did not show up, and 6,193 others encountered issues with their verification. As a result, these 9,136 workers have been excluded from the payment.
Governor Eno granted a 30-day extension for those with unresolved verification issues to complete the process. He added that failure to comply within the given timeframe would result in the assumption that they are no longer part of the state workforce, and their salaries would be stopped.
In a statement issued by the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Ekerete Udoh, it was confirmed that the N80,000 minimum wage will be paid in arrears, effective from November 2024. Payment is expected to commence at the end of January 2025.
He said: “Let me thank the committee for taking the time to deliver on this assignment.
“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 governor promised to continue making workers’ welfare his priority. He expressed the hope that the new minimum wage would cushion the effect of the harsh economy.
Speaking about those yet to be verified, the governor granted a 30-day grace period extension.
“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 assume that they are not civil servants, and their salaries will be stopped.
“We want to extend our hand of fellowship to the organised labour in the state and ask them to work with the government, as we all have a responsibility to Akwa Ibom State.
“We have done a lot to engender good government-labour relations. Since we came on board, we have paid over N47bn in gratuities from the over N97bn backlog we met since 2012.
“We have also provided several palliatives to the workers and people of Akwa Ibom State,” he said.
Speaking on the recommendation that the verification exercise should be yearly, the governor said, “I have received your recommendation that this exercise should be done every year, and I think we will do so.
“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,” he said.
