Abia approves new salary structure for LGA health workers

By Steve Oko

Abia State Government has approved the Consolidated Health Salary Structure
(CONHESS) for Local Government health workers in the state.

This is as the Government announced that the portal for the recruitment of additional health workers had been re-opened.

Commissioner for Information, Prince Okey Kanu, who disclosed this while briefing newsmen on the outcome of this week’s State Executive Council meeting, said the approval was part of the on-going reforms in the state civil service,

He said that the Gov. Alex Otti-led administration would continue to prioritise workers’ welfare and conditions of service of its workforce.

According to him, Abia State is one of the few states in the country that pays the federal government CONHESS.

The Commissioner further disclosed that the functionalisation of second batch of 52 renovated and equipped Primary Health Centres, PHCs, was in progress across the state.

“This brings the total number of functionalised PHCs to 102. The remaining 98 PHCs will be fully renovated and equipped before the end of the year”, he said.

Kanu further said additional 50 or more out of the 79 World Bank Impact PHCs will be fully renovated and equipped before the end of 2025.

“By the end of the year, it is hoped that a total of 250 PHCs or more will have been fully renovated and equipped for use”, he added .

On the reopened recruitment portal, the Commissioner said vacancies “exist for ophthalmologists, medical officers, dental officers as well as part-time and full-time consultants.”

Contributing , Commissioner for Health, Prof. Enoch Ogbonnaya Uche said the government saved over N20 million monthly after verification of health workers in the LGAs.

He described the approval for the implementation of CONHESS as a milestone which would remove dichotomy in the health care workers.

The Commissioner who said 500 nurses had been recruited for deployment into the state health sector, said the approval of CONHESS salary structure would boost the morale of health workers in the state.

He announced an expansion and upgrade in the on-going construction of three specialist hospitals in the state.

The expansion, according to him, is to upgrade facilities of the hospitals to world-class standards.

He said that Governor Otti had directed that the solar power project at the SDG Hospital located in Ugwunagbo be operationalised immediately.

“With the directive, the hospital staff and patients alike would experience 247 light going forward”, he said.

Similarly, he said that the Light Up Abia initiative had continued to make progress, adding that the installation of a 300 kVA-0.35 kVA transformer substation is in progress.

He added that the survey for the Ohafia routing of 33 kVA line from Ihechiowa to Asaga, Ohafia, covering a distance of 27.69 km, is in progress too.

Meanwhile, the Commissioner has appealed to Abia Communities not to resist attempts by Government to acquire land in their domain for developmental purposes.

He assured that Otti’s government was genuine and committed to developmet, and would not abuse any land acquired for development, adding that Government pays handsome compensations.

The Information Commissioner announced that the state government was collaborating with world-class hospitals in Sweden and other global health institutions on a number of medical outreach programmes in the state.

He enumerated the medical outreaches to include one involving the Ministry and ProHealth International slated for 16th to 22nd November; Abia Diaspora Medical Outreach Group to be held between 12th and 19th of December 2025; and the AMPA Abia Medical Outreach holding in April 2026.

The Commissioner also hinted that Abia State and the Swedish Global Health Outreach, would organise another medical outreach in May 2026.