The National Economic Council (NEC) has urged state governors to implement a Cash Award Policy for its public servants for a period of six months to cushion the effect of fuel subsidy removal.

Ogun State Governor, Dapo Abiodun, made this known while briefing State House correspondents on the outcome of the NEC meeting presided over by Vice President Kashim Shettima at the Presidential Villa in Abuja on Thursday.

Abiodun said: “We had a very engaging and robust discussion today and it centred around the steps that we should take as a country towards cushioning the effects of subsidy removal and the unification of the naira.

“We also proposed accordingly that each state should begin to plan toward implementing a Cash Transfer programme that will be based on a social register in the states because the states are better positioned to do the enumeration to ensure the integrity of the social register.

“Again, it was also proposed by NEC that we should implement a Cash Award Policy for all Public Servants. What it means is that it is a policy that allows each subnational to pay public servants a certain prescribe amount of cash on a monthly basis for six months.”

The governor stated that many sustainable measures are being put in place, adding that between now and the next six months, those sustainable measures would begin to be visible.

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“We also talked about paying our civil servants outstanding liabilities whichever way like pensions, gratuities, leave bonuses, and so on. We believe that it will immediately bring succour to our people,” he said.

Governor Abiodun disclosed the NEC emphasised the need for governments to fund Micro Small Scale and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs).

He described MSMEs as the engine room of business, emphasised the need for government to fund MSMEs with a single-digit interest loan, adding that the NEC discussed the immediate implementation of the Energy Transition Plan which is transiting from being reliant on petrol to  a cheaper and more sustainable particular Compressed Natural Gas (CNG)

“We have an abundance of gas in Nigeria. So it was recommended that states will begin a plan to begin to convert their mass transit buses, their taxi vehicles to CNG which will create employment as well,” Abiodun said.

The governor stated that the long-term vision of the government was to use electric vehicles but because government wants to ensure that it set up manufacturing assembling plans in each zone in the country.

He added: “That might take between six to eight months to one year that idea to begin to implement the conversion to CNGs in the meantime while electric vehicles take over.

“So these are the immediate steps we discussed and proposed at the NEC meeting to ensure that our citizens have all understanding that we are indeed as worried as they are. They will begin to see these initiatives implementations immediately.”

The Star