The Federal Government, on Tuesday, honoured 98 civil servants for their outstanding services to the nation, in commemoration of 2021 civil service week.
The presentation of certificate of awards was made at Public Lecture, organised by the office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, as part of activities to mark the 2021 civil service week.
Speaking at the occasion, Dr Folasade Yemi-Esan, Head of the Civil Service of the Federation (HOCSF), said her office was on course to deliver on its mandates to improve on quality service delivery to Nigerians.
“As the most potent and viable instrument available in the country for the formulation and implementation of policies and programmes of government, the civil service remains on course to deliver on its mandate.
“The Federal Government has put in place a number of mechanisms to improve efficiency and enhance performance of the civil service in the face of the current global dynamics, especially the new normal, ” she said.
Yemi-Esan, however, listed some of the mechanism provided by the Federal Government to enhance the sector to include; digitalisation through the deployment of an Enterprise Content Management (ECM) Solution.
Others are capacity building programmes such as Mandatory Induction, the Structured Mandatory Assessment-Based Training Programme (SMAT-P) and Leadership Enhancement and Development Programme (LEAD-P) as well as the Training for Conversion to Planning Cadre, among others.
Also, Mr Boss Mustapha, Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), expressed delight over the choice of the theme for the 2021 civil service celebration.
Represented by Dr Olorunnimbe Mamora, Minister of State for Health, Mustapha said the theme had demonstrated the activeness of the HOCSF for turning the challenge emanated from COVID-19 into an opportunity by most civil servants.
According to him, the COVID-19 pandemic has forcefully exposed the importance of technology in people’s daily activities especially in the way of conduct of lives, and the conduct of government’s businesses is no exception.
“For most of last year, government’s businesses like other businesses were conducted virtually and this exposed Nigeria’s lack of readiness to be a critical player in the ongoing global industrial revolution underpins by advances in information technology, ” he said.
He, nevertheless, commended the rate at which Nigeria was approaching technology in both the public and the private sectors.
Mrs Ifueko Okauru, who spoke on a theme, “Deploying technology to sustain and enhance service delivery in the face of this challenging COVID-19 pandemic”, said Nigerian civil servants could performed more with the advancement in technology.
Okauru, a former Executive Chairman, Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), explained further that African continent was working towards attaining the gold by 2063, hence the need for Nigeria to imitate the initiative.
Meanwhile, Dr Jumai Ahmadu, Director Reform Coordination/ Service Improvement, Federal Capital Territory Authority, one of the awardees, expressed appreciation to the Federation for the honour, saying it was the best thing that had ever happened to her.