I’ll Keep Paying Akwa Ibom Workers Amid The Coronavirus Pandemic – Gov. Udom Emmanuel

Governor Udom Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom State has come out to reiterate his government’s commitment towards the welfare of workers.

Udom recently revealed that his administration remains considerate when it comes to the welfare of employees in the state amid the coronavirus outbreak.

According to him, despite the challenging economic times, Akwa Ibom will not fail to keep paying the salary of workers consistently as at when due.

He added that he is sure that he would always be able to count on the support and understanding of workers as the country deals with the current reality.

His words, “In spite of this dire and challenging economic times, we were able to pay the salary of our workers on April 24th – a clear one week to the end of the month.

“Last year in my May Day speech, I had stated that once the modalities for the payment of the new minimum wage were worked out, that we will commence the payment. As you can attest, we commenced the payment of the new minimum wage last December”.

“Our affordable Mass Housing Scheme for workers is on-going. We are also making concerted efforts at clearing inherited arrears of gratuities, the first set of such, which was done upon my assumption of office, in May 2015, where a ten-year backlog was cleared to the joy and eternal gratitude of the workers. Also, we are facilitating prompt handling of promotion processes alongside human capacity development through strategic training”.

“There is a glut in the market and our oil today sells under 30 dollars per barrel – far below the budgetary benchmark of $57 barrel per day. This is simple terms means our budget earlier passed and assented into law by me would have to be revised downward. With this revision will come some challenges in the implementation of capital and recurrent expenditures.

“I know I can always count on your support and understanding as we deal with this new reality”.