The government of Edo and Kwara states have announced the reduction of work days from five to three to cushion the effect of the petrol subsidy removal on civil servants.
In a statement on Tuesday, Edo state governor, Godwin Obaseki, said his government shared the pains of the people, assuring that his administration will stand with them “in these very challenging times”.
Obaseki also said his administration would do all within its power to ameliorate the sufferings of residents.
“In the wake of fuel subsidy removal by the federal government, fuel prices have increased astronomically leading to a rise in prices of goods and services and overall cost of living,” Obaseki said.
“As a proactive government, we have since taken the step to increase the minimum wage paid to workers in Edo state from the approved N30,000 to N40,000, the highest in the country today.
“We want to assure you that we will continue to pay this amount, while we hope to increase it even further if more allocation accrues to our state from the federal government in view of the expected savings occasioned by the removal of the fuel subsidy.
“We know the hardship that has been caused by this policy which has radically increased the cost of transportation, eating deep into the wages of workers in the state.
“Therefore, the Edo state government is hereby reducing the number of work days that civil and public servants will have to commute to their workplaces from five days a week to three days a week till further notice. Workers will now work from home two days every week.”
He also added that the state is also working on deepening EdoBEST@Home initiative to create more virtual classes, thereby reducing the cost of commuting by parents, teachers and pupils to school.
“The Edo SUBEB will provide details on this initiative in the coming days,” he added.
“To lower the rising cost of energy on our people, we will continue to work with the electricity companies in the state to improve power supply to homes and businesses.
“Similarly, fibre optic connections are being made available to help our people work remotely, thereby reducing their cost of transportation.”
In a similar development, Kwara State Governor, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq on Monday met with top labour leaders in the state, appealing to them that the recent removal of fuel subsidy had been done in good faith to curb further damage to the economy.
To lessen the impact of the subsidy removal on workers earnings, the governor approved the immediate reduction of workdays from five to three.
