Day 150 Top Borno civil servants get training on improved productivity
By Abdulkareem Haruna
Top civil servants, encompassing ministerial secretaries and directors, have this week been attending a workshop to acquire new skills on how to improve their productivity for effective service delivery in Borno state.
This was organized on Tuesday, August 2, 2022, by the office of Borno state Head of Civil Service, Barrister Simon Malgwi.
Speaking at the flag-off of the two-day workshop for selected 150 directors and ministerial secretaries, Barrister Malgwi said the senior civil servants are to be drilled on six thematic areas of leadership and good governance, human resource management, public works ethics and attitudinal change, and productivity by renowned university dons led by Professor Ibrahim Umara, of the department of the political science University of Maiduguri.
The Borno state government organised the retraining exercise in collaboration with a Maiduguri-based education and management consultancy, Scieman Consultants Nigeria Ltd.
The Head of Service said the training program was approved by the government of Professor Babagana Zulum in line with his administration’s policy thrust and commitment to “training and retraining is necessary for effective and efficient service delivery.”
He recalled that in 2020, in his office “with the support of His Excellency, we trained 150 Directors and Deputy Directors of Administration and Supplies.”
Though the COVID-19 Pandemic had slowed down the training process, the head of the service said the administration hopes to train more than 1,000
Civil Servants of all cadres including Permanent Secretaries before the end of 2022.
“Today we have commenced the training with 150 Ministerial Secretaries and Directors; next week we will also conduct another training for 200 officers on grade levels 08/13./This will be followed by the training of 60 store officers and related cadres in all the MDAs.
“We hope to crown up the first phase of these training with a retreat for Permanent Secretaries in Abuja specifically on public procurement and contract management,” he said.
On the number of workforce in the state, the head of the service said Borno state currently has over 16,000 civil Servants even as he acknowledged that the number of those retiring is alarming.
“It is therefore pertinent that even as government is recruiting new employees in critical sectors like education, health and administration we must ensure that those still in service are well and properly trained for quality service delivery.”
He exhorted the civil servants to take advantage of modern technology to improve themselves for better and quality service delivery.
Presenting the opening paper, the chief executive officer of Scieman Consultant, Wakil Abbas, said the workshop came at the appropriate time when the state is in dire need of a purposeful workforce for the delivery of the developmental plans of Borno state as outlined by the government of Professor Babagana Zulum.
