Lagos wants workers to justify N1b training expenses

Dr. Akintola Benson, Lagos State Commissioner for Establishments, Training and Pension

Kazeem Ugbodaga

The Lagos State Government on Tuesday appealed to workers undergoing trainings in the state to justify government’s N1 billion expenditure to boost their capacity.

The government said that the goal of the training was to maintain excellence in service delivery.

The State Commissioner for Establishments, Training and Pension, Dr. Akintola Benson made this appeal while monitoring the capacity building workshops organised for public servants in the state’s ministries, departments and agencies, MDAs, at the Lagos State Public Service Staff Development Centre, PSSDC, Magodo and the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, LCCI, Alausa, Lagos, Southwest Nigeria.

Benson, who was represented by the Permanent Secretary, EstablishmentS and Training, Mrs. Folasade Ogunnaike, stated that the N1 billion earmarked for the training of workers this year was unprecedented and urged the workers to ensure the gesture was not in vain.

He said about 120 public servants were trained weekly on different management courses, saying that the trainings were in line with the global best practice.

“This is one of such programmes and it is to build the capacity of our civil servants towards excellence service delivery in line with the slogan of Lagos State as State of Excellence. So, we always aspire for the position of excellence and we don’t want to be caught napping, we don’t want other states to overtake us.

“We want to maintain our lead and that is why we are constantly lifting the standard and raising the bar for the public servants in the state. This is also in line with the vision of our governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode and his administration. There is great premium on capacity building. We know that a knowledgeable workforce will deliver the government’s mandate. We are benchmarking ourselves against the best practices around the world, not just Africa or Europe,” he stated.

Benson urged the workers to take the training seriously, adding that at the end of the training, they are expected to be proactive, forward looking and not only improve on their skills but also be able to add value to the service delivery.

According to him, to ensure judicious use of the N1 billion budget, constant monitoring and on-the-spot-assessment would be carried out throughout the training, which would continue till the end of the year.

“The budget we have for this year is N1 billion which is unprecedented. It is the first time we have such a huge sum of money for the training of state workforce. So, we need to spend it judiciously to be able to achieve the purpose for which the fund has been increased. The training of 120 to 90 public servants weekly will continue till the end of the year. It is a year-long programme and we have over 90,000 workforce,” she said.

Director of the PSSDC, Mr, Ayodeji Haruna, explained that the training was targeted at the majority of the public servants, who would, in turn, positively influence others’ attitude for better service delivery.

“We have been running 3-4 programmes daily because we want to get the critical mass of the public servants. That is; when you are able to get a part of the whole, that part of the whole will be able to influence the action and inaction of the others. The training is meant to reinforce positive attitude and to change negative attitude because the attitude depends on the kind of service they will give out to the society and we are looking at the kind of service from the perspective of excellence. So, looking at that, we want to get as many as possible of our staff, colleagues, trained and re-trained,” he said.