Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo state has announced the short-term plans of his administration to mitigate the effects of the fuel subsidy removal on residents of the state, saying that his administration would continue to put the interest of the people first.
In a state-wide broadcast, Governor Makinde maintained that food security, transportation are among the immediate areas being targeted by the government to alleviate the economic difficulties facing residents of the state.
The governor, who maintained that the short-term plans tagged the Sustainable Actions for Economic Recovery (SAfER) would target the poorest of the poor and the vulnerable and ensure a softer landing for them, said the action plans would also ease the burden of transportation for all residents and the civil servants and also address the challenges of food security.
He stated that under the SAfEr package, agropreneurs trained under the Youth Entrepreneurship in Agribusiness Project (YEAP), who have established agribusinesses would receive enterprise support of five hundred million naira (N500,000,000), while small businesses would benefit from low-interest-rate loans with the provision of five hundred million naira (N500,000,000) facility.
He added that the state government is already updating its social register to capture 200,000 of the poorest of the poor, who will be provided with food relief packages and that 100,000 health insurance packages wiould be rolled out for the vulnerable in the society.
Meanwhile,Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo state has directed civil servants to resume to their duty posts on Monday, as his government would pay the two months deductions owed the workers with their August salary, while it would also explore further options on dialogue.
He encouraged the union leaders to return to the negotiating table to discuss any increases in salary or possible harmonisation of pension payments.
It would be recalled that Oyo state workers in the last five days had embarked on protest over non -remitance of deductions from salaries.