El-Rufai allows workers to work four days per week

Workers in Kaduna State will begin a transition to a four-day working week to help boost productivity, improve work-life balance, and allow them to spend more time with their families, as the Federal Government completes the handover of 700,000 school feeding program utensils to the state.

The governor said the state government would begin implementing the transitional arrangement in the public service on December 1, 2021, in a statement issued by his Special Adviser on Media and Communication, Muyiwa Adekeye.

He stated that starting in December, public servants’ working hours would be 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday.

All public employees, with the exception of those in schools and healthcare facilities, will work from home on Fridays, according to the governor.

He explained that the interim working arrangement would last until the government was ready to move on to the next stage of the transition, which would see all ministries, departments, and agencies (MDAs) in the state switch to a four-day work week.

“This measure is also intended to reflect lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic, which necessitated a significant relaxation of old working traditions as well as the adoption of virtual and remote working arrangements,” he said.

In the meantime, the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management, and Social Development has handed over 700,000 feeding utensils to the Kaduna State Government for distribution to beneficiaries of the state’s National Home Grown School Feeding Program.

The utensils were delivered at the Sheikh Gumi LEA Primary School in Kaduna, where Sadiyah Umar Farouq, the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, said the initiative was designed to address poverty while providing more children from low-income families with access to education.

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Hajiyah Maimuna Idris, the ministry’s Deputy Director, Legal, recalled that the feeding program was one of the Federal Government’s four key intervention schemes under the National Social Investment Programme (NSIP) to boost school enrollment, nutrition, and local economic activities in communities across the country.

“The program’s benefits and impact on the lives and livelihoods of individuals, groups, and communities are clear evidence that malnutrition and poverty are being addressed.

“So far, over nine million pupils have been fed by employment through the program, and the impact on the school feeding ecosystem is undeniable,” she said.