Edo governor meets civil servants, promises health insurance

Gov. Godwin Obaseki of Edo on Tuesday met with the state’s civil servants of directorate cadre, pledging to build their capacities and provide health insurance scheme for them.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported that the civil servants included permanent secretaries and other senior workers on salary Grade Levels 15 to 17.

Addressing the civil servants at Government House in Benin, Gov. Obaseki said the meeting was to share thoughts towards ensuring a more efficient and result oriented civil service.

He noted that due to the present economic situation, there was need to avoid the luxury of running government as in the past and embrace efficiency based on use of technology.

“We will emphasis training and re-training for our civil servants; we need to create an environment where we should enjoy coming to work,” he said.

Obaseki said his administration would not negotiate the health of the people of the state as the State Health Insurance Scheme would be made compulsory for all, especially the civil servants, to enable them to access quality good healthcare.

“I am tired of medical request to travel abroad for medical care,” the governor said.

The governor said his administration would start a housing project within the year and called on the workers to key into the project and ensure they benefited.

“The era of automatic promotion is gone because people must earn their promotion.

“Promotion will not be delayed as assessment will be done on time; delay in promoting workers will not be tolerated, “he said.

Responding to suggestions made by some of the civil servants on how to move the state civil service forward, the governor promised to recruit more workers, provide more facilities, logistics, and secure additional 1,000 computer in addition to the 1,000 bought in 2017.

Earlier, the Head of Service, Mrs Gladys Idahor, appreciated the governor for his commitment to improve and develop the capacity of civil servants in the state.

Idahor pledged the loyalty and commitment of the workforce, saying “this year we will be more committed and dedicated as civil servants to ensure effective service delivery”.

The high point of the event was the inspection of an Information Technology and Communication Centre at Government House, for the training of civil servants.