Soludo pledges grants to small businesses in Anambra

• Confirms implementation of N70, 000 minimum wage
• C’River workers to embark on a two-day warning strike

The Governor of Anambra State, Chukwuma Soludo, has reiterated his administration’s commitment to improving Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) with grants across 326 wards of the state.

This was revealed while presenting the 2025 Budget of N606.99 billion to the Anambra State House of Assembly, in Awka, the state capital.

With the 2025 budget, Soludo plans to expand the state’s ‘One-Youth-Two-Skills’ programme to accommodate more youths and empower them accordingly, and also establish a ‘One Million Digital Tribe,’ scaling the digital skill training programme through the Solution Innovation District (SID).

The initial 5,000 graduates of the state’s ‘One Youth, Two Skills’ training programme for empowerment purposes are now entrepreneurs and the Soludo administration has launched the second phase for 8,700 young people across various skills, setting aside N2.5 billion to support their start-up capital. Also, the Solution Innovation District (SID), propelled by the current government, has trained 20,000 youths in four major tech skills and recently graduated 1,500 youths in its ‘Code Anambra Programme.’

In the budget, recurrent expenditures account for N139.5 billion (YoY growth of 45.0 per cent), while capital expenditure is N467.5 billion (YoY growth of 48.9 per cent).

The Capital Budget constitutes 77 per cent of the total budget size, while recurrent expenditures account for 23 per cent (the same ratios in the 2024 budget). The budget deficit is estimated at N148.3 billion (24 per cent of the budget compared to 30 per cent in the 2024 budget).

MEANWHILE, there are indications that the Anambra State government has commenced implementation of the N70,000 minimum wage.

According to a statement signed by the Commissioner for Information, Dr Law Mefor, the payment of the new minimum wage of N70,000 to workers is in line with the Federal Government directives for an improved standard of living.

According to the statement, this is against media reports that have excluded the state from the list of states already paying the new minimum wage. It added that the Soludo administration is committed to the improved welfare of Anambra workers.

Mefor noted that the state government commenced implementation of the new minimum wage in October.

However, the organised labour in Cross River State has directed state civil servants to embark on a two-day warning strike over the non-implementation of the new minimum wage.

The strike action, which was signed by the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC), is set to commence from November 24 midnight to 26, 2024.

This follows a walkout staged by representatives of Cross River workers from a scheduled meeting held on Monday, November 18, 2024, with state government officials who formed members of the committee at the office of the State Head of Service, Innocent Eteng, in Calabar.

According to the labour leaders, last week, when the committee met for the first time, the meeting ended in a stalemate when they perceived delayed tactics by the government to postpone the meeting to January next year.

The labour unions are demanding for the new national minimum wage of N70, 000, which is far from the N40, 000 the state government promised to pay.