The former head of state, Abdulsalami Abubakar, will chair today’s Public Service Excellence Awards as the special guest of honour. The gala/dinner will take place at the Ladi Kwali Hall, Sheraton Abuja Hotel, Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory.
Other dignitaries expected at the event include the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha; Head of Service of the Federation, Winifred Oyo-Ita; the Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed; chairman, All Progressives Congress (APC), John Odigie Oyegun; managing director, Julius Berger Plc, Wolfgang Goetsch and Ernest Mupwaya, the managing director, Abuja Electricity Distribution Company.
Among the ministers, director-generals and chief executive officers to be honoured today are Kayode Fayemi, the Minister of Mines and Steel Development; Audu Innocent Ogbe, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development; Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources; Enyinnaya Okechukwu Enelema, the Minister of Industry, Trade & Investments; Mallam Adamu Adamu, the Minister of Education; Babatunde Raji Fashola, the Minister of Power, Works and Housing and Abdul-Raheem Adebayo Shittu, the Minister of Communications.
The heads of agencies and departments nominated by the Award Committee include Godwin Emefiele, Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria; Aliyu Abdulhameed, MD/CEO, Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL); Umaru Ibrahim, MD/CEO, Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC); Maikanti Baru, GMD, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC); Yemi Kale, DG, National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and Umaru Garba Danbatta, the executive vice chairman and CEO, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).
Others on the roll call are Boboye Olayemi Oyeyemi, Corps Marshal, Federal Road Safety Corps(FRSC); Patience Oniha, DG, Debt Management Office(DMO); Hadiza Bala Usman, MD Nigerian Ports Authority(NPA); Mohammed Babandede, Comptroller-General, Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS); Sharon Ikeazor, executive secretary, The Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTDA); Yewande Sadiku, executive secretary, Nigerian Investment Promotion Council (NIPC) and Uche Orji, MD/CEO, Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA).
BusinessDay introduced the awards to single out the MDAs that supported the vision of the Federal Government through judicious allocation of scarce resources, concise and meticulous policies and programs with outstanding results within the reference period.
The Award Committee nominated the above named heads of MDAs who in no small measure have contributed to the nation’s economic diversification, agricultural transformation, transparency, enhancement of investors’ confidence, cultural reorientation, entrepreneurship, technological transfers, reduction in information asymmetry, price stability and security of lives and property which aided Nigeria’s recent exit from recession. Red carpet opens by 6pm.
