The Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike has announced the lifting of the embargo placed on promotion of workers in the state civil service.
The governor made the announcement at the 2019 Workers’ Day Celebration in Port Harcourt held at the Yakubu Gowon Stadium, Elekahia.
Wike, who was represented by the Deputy Governor, Dr. Ipalibo Banigo, disclosed that the Chairman of the Civil Service Commission had already received directives to conduct interviews and promote those qualified to their next salary grades.
He also disclosed that he had approved the recruitment of Rivers indigenes to fill existing vacancies from retired staff as part of efforts to strengthen the commission for effective service delivery to the people.
Wike disclosed that government had begun the implementation of the N100, 000,000 interest free-loan to civil servants in a bid to advance the welfare and well-being of civil servants and promised to begin payment of the new minimum wage as soon as he received the official transmission from the federal government.
The governor said that under his watch, the government was committed to tackling social problems by creating the enabling environment for the private sector to create jobs and empower unemployed youths in the state.
Furthermore, he said the government was bolstering the education sector to produce better equipped graduates.
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He said: “We are also strengthening our educational system to ensure that our graduates are imbued with appropriate skills and the mindset to become job creators rather than job seekers.
“We will also continue to implement effective policies and programmes that will address and lift our people from poverty to economic prosperity.”
The state Chairman of the NLC, Beatrice Itubo, congratulated Gov. Wike and his deputy for their victory at the last election which she described as a referendum on the performance of Wike in the past four years.
She said that labour family in Rivers, as a critical development partner, was satisfied with the massive infrastructure development embarked upon by the Gov Wike led administration.
“Our thanks go to the government of Rivers state under the competent leadership of Governor Wike, for showing preparedness to pay the new national minimum wage as soon as formalities are done with,” she said.
The labour leader however, called on the government to seriously address the issue of insecurity in the state.
