The Ebonyi State Government has reached advanced level in simplifying gratuity payment process to enable civil servant’s earn their full gratuities within one hour of exiting the service.
Governor Francis Nwifuru made the revelation on Thursday in his address to workers during the 2025 Workers’ Day Celebration.
The event was held at the Pa Ngele Oruta Township Stadium, Abakaliki, the Ebonyi State capital.
The governor, who expressed his understanding of the workers’ challenges in the state, assured them that his administration was focused on tackling them head on.
He noted that the prompt gratuity payment mechanism would assuage the pains and eliminate the inconveniences suffered by retirees on account of certain bureaucratic bottlenecks, which had hitherto bedevilled the system.
Nwifuru said: “The position I occupy brings me to a vantage point where all the goings-on are brought to my attention for necessary action.
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“In fact, all bucks stop on my table.
“This is why I said I understand the challenges you face, and I assure you that this administration is focused on tackling them head-on.
“As you all know, we have already taken concrete steps to improve prompt salary payments, expand opportunities for capacity development, and provide conducive workspaces, and review outdated administrative structures.
“These efforts are not just promises, they are responsibilities that we are actively executing.
“Currently, we are not owing pensions and gratuities.
“We are putting in place a system that clears your gratuity less than one hour after exiting our service as a retiree.
“This, you can agree with, will reduce the risks of running around to process your retirement and its bottlenecks.
“I am glad to inform you we have reached advanced stage in this regard.”
Governor Nwifuru, who expressed pride in the resilience, professionalism, and enduring spirit of workers, which he said has continued to lubricate the wheel of progress in the state, pledged to continue to prioritise their welfare, uphold the dignity of labour, and ensure that the civil and public service systems in the state are not only efficient, but reflective of equity, productivity, and innovation.
He noted that in line with his People’s Charter of Needs Agenda, his administration was committed to engendering a work environment that empowers workers to thrive, grow, and deliver quality service to the people of the state.
Delivering the joint address of the Nigeria Labour Congress and Trade Union Congress, the State NLC Chairman, Professor Ogugua Egwu, decried the excruciating effect of the present day economic hardship on the workers and their dependents, stressing that the situation has shrunk workers’ physique, psychology, and freedom in the civil space.
Ogugua lamented: “We may not have the right words to describe this unimaginable degree of economic hardship among the working class nor have the right form of gesticulating, but deep-rooted poverty is very palpable among the people.
“It is written on our faces, moulded into our posture, and strongly cast in the deepest grave of our minds.
“As a result, what do we have?
“Agitations everywhere, bickering, sickness, venomous anger, lack of self-worth, and eventual deaths.”
Ogugua, however, commended Governor Nwifuru for his magnanimity towards workers in the state, including prompt salary, pensions and gratuity payments; appointment of some technocrats into his cabinet; and openness to workers, among other numerous incentives, describing him as “the most humanistic governor of our time”.
He called on the governor to address the housing, transportation, and other social problems confronting workers in the state.
He also called for proper equipment of government offices in the new state secretariat, Centenary City, Abakaliki, as well as restore the bulk leave allowance of workers in the state in line with the realities of the new national minimum wage, 2024, among others.
The State Head of Service, Dr. Ritamary Okoro, in her speech, enumerated some of the many benefits the state workers have so far enjoyed from the governor, including salary bonuses, and enjoined them to reciprocate the gestures by being diligent and dedicated to their duties.
Okoro stated that her office was on top of arrangements to advance capacity building and trainings for both the old and the newly recruited civil servants and permanent Secretaries in the state.
The theme for this year’s celebration was: “Reclaiming the Civic Space in the Midst of Economic Hardship.”
The Workers. Day, which was celebrated in low key in the state, went without the usual fanfare and march past.
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