Ekiti State Goes Austere, Suspends Minimum Wage, Cut Subventions To Tertiary Institutions |The Source

By Ayodele Oni

Ekiti State Government and stakeholders have agreed on some austerity measures to sustain the economy of the State in the face of dwindling revenue.

Governor Kayode Fayemi had on Monday, during a live radio/television programme, hinted that revenue accruing to the state from the Federation Account has dropped.

According to him, the chunk of the revenue is being used to pay workers salaries and other overhead costs.

At the end of the stakeholders meeting in Ado Ekiti on Tuesday, it was agreed that subventions to Government owned Tertiary Institutions should be slashed.

With this development, the two state owned universities will have to rely on income from fees and other sources.

Staff of the Ekiti State University,(EKSU) are currently on strike over non payment of entitlements and non release of subventions to the institution.

Other measures put forward include cutting or total stoppage of running grants to offices, and discontinuation of the consequential adjustments of the minimum wage for senior category of workers, as well as ramping up of tax collection in a bid to shore up Internally Generated Revenue (IGR).

The Governor had earlier told the stakeholders that there was the need to reflect on the economic reality and development in the country in order to avert possible economic crisis.

He said that if the State must survive the current economic quagmire, there was need to cut over N680 million expenses per month, insisting that his administration would not sack any worker.

“We don’t want to sack anyone in Ekiti, these are our people, they are doing their jobs, but we cannot continue to manage what we cannot manage so we may have to discuss with our comrades in labour, not a cancellation but a suspension of the minimum wage consequential adjustment until such a time that our finances improve and all of us can see that this is the situation of our finance.

“We need to take a decisive and quick steps on these tough but necessary choices that we have to take in order to restore the State back to fiscal health and then swift consolidation action taken in short term and continuous review to inform medium to long term planning.”

In attendance at the parley were civil servants, traditional rulers, religious leaders, labour and trade union leaders, representatives of the academic community, students leaders, leadership of market women, artisan and transporters among others.