Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State, South-South Nigeria has reduced workdays for public and civil servants in the State.

Obaseki disclosed this in a statement he personally signed on Tuesday. The Governor noted that this was “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.”

The statement read, “The Edo State Government shares the pains of our people and wants to assure everyone that we are standing with them in these very challenging
times.

“We want to reassure our people that we will do all within our powers as a sub-national government to reduce the pains and ameliorate the sufferings our people are currently facing due to the current realities.”

Obaseki noted that “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.”

The Governor assured residents, “We will continue to pay this amount, while we hope to increase it even farther, 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.”

Governor Obaseki, while adding that the state government is aware of the hardship caused by the policy said, “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 a week.

“Similarly, for teachers and parents, their commuting to school will be reduced as the government is working on deepening the EdoBEST Home initiative to create more virtual classrooms, thereby reducing the cost of commuting for parents, teachers, and pupils. The Edo SUBEB will provide details on this initiative in the coming days.”

The statement read further, “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, fiber optic connections are being made available to help our people work remotely, thereby reducing their cost of transportation.

“While government intensifies these efforts to alleviate the burden of the fuel price increase on the people during this very challenging period, we want to call on everyone to remain calm and go about their daily businesses lawfully.”