To cushion the effect of the fuel subsidy removal, the Governor of Anambra State, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo on Monday said about 59,000 pensioners and public servants in Anambra State and 21 local government areas, will receive an additional N12,000 from September to December 2023 which is in addition to 10 percent salary increase since January 2023.
This was contained in a statement by the governor’s Press Secretary, Christian Aburime, in Awka, on Monday.
He said, “Nigeria is undergoing fundamental re-setting of the macroeconomic framework. The long overdue disruptive change, especially the removal of subsidy on PMS and reduction of distortions in the exchange rate, comes with certain hardships on all the residents of Nigeria.
“Governments at all levels in Nigeria have shown a keen commitment to ameliorate the consequent short-term effects of the policy change on livelihoods.
“The President, Bola Tinubu, has rolled out an agenda of palliatives as the response of the Federal Government. We support the FGN agenda and expect to partner with the Federal Government to ensure that Anambra residents benefit maximally from the federal programmes.
“Ours is a government on the foundation of the All Progressives Grand Alliance. We are progressives, and the welfare of the ordinary Nigerians, especially the poor and vulnerable, remains our primary focus.
“In our 2024 budget, we shall roll out a more comprehensive agenda to address the medium to longer-term issues that will help to smoothen the path for all our residents, and ensure that everyone shares in our broad agenda of building a livable and prosperous homeland.”
“In the meantime and over the remaining four months of the year (September – December 2023) as well as within the context of our 2023 budget framework, we are rolling out a few immediate and medium-term measures.
“Our response recognises that the subsidy removal affects all citizens, especially millions of the unemployed and underemployed youths and vulnerable segments of the population. Our interim response reflects the need to target the total population.
“In our foresighted response to the rising inflation, our government had increased the salaries of all public servants by 10 per cent effective January 2023. We have been paying the 10 per cent adjustment since January 2023.
“In addition to the salary increase, we will be paying every pensioner and public servant in the employment of the Anambra State Government and the 21 LGAs (approximately 59,000 persons) for the period September 2023 to December 2023, a monthly flat non-taxable cash award of N12,000. This is to augment their monthly take-home.”
The governor said highly vulnerable persons such as hawkers, wheelbarrow and truck pushers, vulcanizers, artisans, okada drivers, petty traders with capital of less than N100,000, are exempted from all forms of taxation/levies in the state.
“We are reviewing the plethora of other levies, fees, and charges in these schools. Before schools resume in September 2023, we shall make further announcements to sanitize the system and reduce the burden on our pupils/students and their sponsors.
“We call on the landlords to show empathy to their tenants at this challenging moment and consider easier options for rent payment.
“Still on initiative to reduce the cost of transportation for the larger segment of Ndi Anambra, we will be applying to purchase many of the CNG-fueled buses to be provided by the Federal Government for intra-state transportation. The aim is to reduce the cost of transportation within Anambra.
“We recently distributed a total of 1.1 million oil palm and coconut high-yielding seedlings to over 100,000 households. We plan to sustain the distribution of one million seedlings per annum over several years in continuation of our revolution to create a new palm-coconut green/industrial ecosystem that will guarantee 500,000 – 1,000,000 households earning N1.5m to N3m per annum, thereby lifting them out of poverty, create wealth and earn foreign exchange for Nigeria.
“We are proposing a revolving loan scheme at near-zero interest rate. We are targeting over 100,000 micro businesses.
