DELTA State Commissioner for Works (Rural and Riverine Roads), Mr. Charles Aniagwu has said that the state was among the first to pay workers the new minimum wage.
Speaking on a live television programme monitored in Asaba with the theme “Developments within the sub-nationals’ Year 2024 in Retrospect”, Aniagwu said Delta was among the first states in the country to pay the new minimum wage as far back as October 2024.
He said “when the Federal Government agreed with Labour to implement a N70,000 Naira minimum wage. Our government made it very clear that as soon as that was settled, that we were going to proceed to begin implementation.
“So, we are not among those that are still procrastinating. We are not even implementing just N70,000. We are implementing far above that.
“We are not saying we are going to implement it because as for the salaries that were paid last month, our people have already received the minimum wage right from October. So we have started implementing.
“So, we are not among those that are having challenges with their workforce. We always have the cooperation of our labour force in Delta.
“Governor Oborevwori who is very labour-friendly, has even before the argument around wage increase, because of the hardship that was triggered by certain pronouncements at the federal level already kick-started a number of policies aimed at ensuring that our workforce is taken care of and that the challenges triggered by some of those policies are mitigated.” On health care delivery, Aniagwu said the Oborevwori administration was working on over 150 health centres even as the 64 general hospitals in the state are receiving a facelift. This is in addition to the establishment of a new teaching hospital in Ozoro.
“We have been able to get the National Universities Commission to accredit a number of programmes including the introduction of Medicine at the Delta State University of Science and Technology in Ozoro.
“So we are now building a College of Medicine that will be able to cater to the needs of the medical students that will have to attend that institution in Ozoro.
