El-Rufai tasks civil servants to donate 25% of salary for COVID-19
COVID-19: El-Rufai tasks civil servants to donate 25% of salary
In his bids to raise fund to fight COVID-19 in Kaduna State, Governor Nasir El-Rufai asked civil servants who earn N67, 000 and above to donate a 25 percent of their salary to the government for the fight against coronavirus.
He has also demanded that each Commissioner in his administration should donate N500, 000.
Nigerians as well as international organisations and foreign countries have made huge donations to the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 for the fight against coronavirus. There is also a Coalition Against COVID-19 being piloted by Chairman of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote which is also pooling resources in that direction. President Muhammadu Buhari has also approached the National Assembly for a N500 billion fund to fight the virus.
El-Rufai who recently recovered from the virus after spending about 35 days in the hospital has extended the quarantine orders being enforced in the state for another 30 days.
The governor’s decision followed the recommendations by the State Standing Committee on Covid-19, which is chaired by the Deputy Governor, Dr Hadiza Balarabe.
Muyiwa Adekeye, the special adviser to the El-Rufai on media, said the governor reviewed the Quarantine Orders to strengthen the provisions against unauthorised movements, adding that “the two-day window during which the restriction of movement is relaxed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays has been reduced to only one day.’
Adekeye also disclosed that wearing of facemasks will be enforced as a critical public health measure to reduce person-person transmission of COVID-19.
He added that to support the provision of those items to the low income, poor and vulnerable residents of the state, the state government also directed all its senior appointees, including Commissioners, Permanent Secretaries, Special Advisers and Heads of Agencies to each donate N500,000 in April 2020, adding that, in subsequent months, they will donate 50% of their salaries until the quarantine ends.
According to Adekeye, he said while other political appointees are to make monthly donations, career public servants earning a net pay of N67,000 and above after-tax will also donate 25 per cent of their monthly pay.
He said: “Henceforth, only Wednesdays will be lockdown-free until the trajectory of Covid-19 infections becomes clearer.
“All persons that venture out of their homes for whatever reason must wear facemasks and observe social distancing everywhere they go, in markets and in authorised vehicles. Government is making efforts to provide facemasks for poor and vulnerable residents, and it appeals to everyone that can afford it to get their tailors to make them cloth facemasks which they can wash after every use. The government also encourages tailors to produce facemasks for sale to those that are neither poor nor vulnerable.”