Abia State Government has stated that it will commence fully payment of national minimum wage in October, noting that since July 2024 when it was approved by the Federal Government, the state government reached an agreement with the organised labour in the state to start the payment of the new wage of N70,000 this month.
According to Prince Okey Kanu, the Abia State Commissioner for Information, who disclosed this while briefing journalists in Umuahia said the new minimum wage will be paid unfailingly in October 2024.
He noted that its implementation will equally take effect October 2024, pointing out that it’ll however not be paid on the 28th of the month as has been the case since the inception of this administration.
His word, “The state government and the organised labour have reached an amicable settlement with regards to the issue of the payment of the new minimum wage.
“The payment of the new minimum wage will still happen this October. It might be a bit difficult to commence on October 28, 2024 because the negotiations ended in the early hours of October 28.
“Rest assured that those payments will be made before the end of the month as promised by the state governor”.
On the Local Government elections coming on Saturday, November 2, 2024 in the state, Prince Kanu stated that the elections to be conducted by the Abia State Independent Electoral Commission (ABSIEC) will still hold as scheduled.
Consequently, public servants in the state, will work for a half day on Friday, November 1, 2024 to enable them travel to their respective registration centres to participate in the elections coming up the next day.
He also added that details of the restriction of movement during the elections will be disclosed prior to the day of election.
Kanu added, “The Friday preceding the elections, work will end by 12 noon to enable workers travel to their communities to participate fully in the elections”.
On health, the Commissioner used the forum to disclose that the “Ten Million Know Your Number”, “Control Your Number” programme which is a national health programme for the free screening of diabetes and hypertension has kicked off in Abia State Monday 28 October 2024 and will last till the 5th of November 2024.
According to him, a total number of 223,847 Abians are expected to be screened during the exercise which is aimed at creating awareness about the diseases.
He said, “It is a national programme and it is intended to screen 10 million Nigerians. They want to screen people to ascertain how healthy they are because a lot of people die silently as a result of hypertension and diabetes.
“This programme offers Abians opportunity to get screened for free. By this announcement Abians are encouraged to show up at the venues where the screening exercise is taking place”.
