The Plateau State governor, Simon Lalong, has assured that his government is prepared and ready to pay the N30,000 national minimum wage to workers as signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari. He gave this assurance at the commissioning of Bokkos Pozzolana Pilot Plant and Skills Centre in Bokkos, Plateau State, built by the Nigerian Building and Road Research Institute (NBRRI), a parastatal under the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology.
He restated government’s effort towards bettering the lots of the workers while creating more employment for the unemployed in the state. Lalong represented by the state’s commissioner for Science and Technology, Mr Dan Manjang, committed to creating more jobs by providing the enabling environment through skills acquisition.
He said: “I assure you that Plateau State is one of the states, apart from the social intervention programmes, N-Power, Plateau State government has a full-fledged agency that is called Plateau State small and medium scale development agency.
“As I talking to you the state government is interviewing people so that it can employ 1,000 teachers and 1,600 civil servants. We employed 1,000 teachers last year, this year we’re continuing and consistently the state government has given assurances that the N30, 000 minimum wage, Plateau State government is ready to pay. So, the government is so happy, and congratulate whoever has conceived this project.”
Lalong reiterated government’s commitment to partner with NBRRI by providing enabling environment within the ambits of its power. Earlier, the minister of Science and Technology, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, said the aim of the NBRRI plant was to provide a processing facility that produces pozzolana from raw materials such as fly ash, volcanic ash and other waste materials.
In his welcome remarks, the acting director general of NBRRI, Prof. Duna Samson, said the commissioning was a rare opportunity for the institute to showcase some of the results of its research activities undertaken in line with its mandate.