Kogi State Governor, Usman Ododo, yesterday, approved with immediate effect N72,500 minimum wage for workers in its civil service and those at the local government level.

The proposal, which is slightly higher than the N70,000 federal benchmark, was sanctioned by the governor while receiving report of the state’s minimum wage implementation committee, headed by the Head of Civil Service, Elijah Avenemi, assuring that he was more committed to the overall welfare of all cadres of workers in the state.

He also gave tax relief to workers for the next one year, adding that “no any Pay-as-you-earn (PAYE) tax nor any form of deductions will be made from their salaries within the next one year.”

Ododo noted that having been a labour leader and a civil servant before going into partisan politics, he knew what civil servants were going through, and that now that God had made him the governorship, he would do all within the state’s resources to provide succour for the workforce.