Chris Ngige, minister of labour and employment, on Tuesday unveiled plans for the repositioning of all the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) for better productivity.
To achieve this, Ngige, who spoke at the opening of ‘Productivity awareness lecture for middle cadre (Grade levels 07–12) officers who constitute the target group that handle major functions in the ministry and public sector,’ said the stage was set for the establishment of Productivity Units in all the MDAs as directed by President Muhammadu Buhari.
“We are living in a time of change. The public service must improve its productivity in order to achieve growth and vitalise the Nigerian economy against the backdrop of accelerating globalisation and International Competitiveness, exponential increase in the unemployment rate and the dwindling oil revenues,” the minister said.
The minister also emphasised the need to align the ‘service needs’ to ‘its responsibilities’ not only as a source of policy advice and primary executor of programmes, but as the custodian of data and information on which decisions are to be based.
“Productivity is universally acknowledged as crucial and critical to a country’s competitiveness and its integration into the global economy.
“In the same token, it has been acknowledged that economic downturn, decline and stagnation can be traced to low productivity, adding that it is in realisation of this fact that the Federal Government has continued to invest heavily on reform programmes directed at transforming the public service to tackle head-on the various challenges that have threatened our survival as a nation, impaired our productive growth and denied us the full dividends of democracy,” Ngige observed.
In his address, the director-general, National Productivity Centre, Kashim Akor, noted that presentation was designed for all MDAs on the need to sharpen the skills and competences of the human resources in the public service for improved productivity and efficient service delivery.
He emphasised that the specific objectives of the lecture were aimed at inculcating the right attitude to work, understand the concept and importance of productivity, discuss the impact of productivity improvement in the workplace, introduce participants to the basic productivity improvement tools and techniques, and propagate productivity consciousness in the public sector.
“It is important that the staff of the Ministry of Labour and Employment more than any other Ministry should be the Productivity champions and change agents. You must at all times strive to improve all situations no matter how good they may look.
“Productivity is all about constant improvement and attitude for progress. We must eschew low productivity in our work places as productivity remains the ultimate key to economic growth and development of any nation,” he explained.
