By Racheal Momoh
The Head of the Civil Service of the Federation (HoCSF), Dr. Folasade Yemi-Esan, has called on Civil Servants to think out of the box, cultivate ideas that will ensure quality service, efficiency and productivity in the public sector.
She urged them to rise up to their expected responsibilities of providing effective leadership, policy frameworks and direction.
According to her, this convergence will speed up positive change, by adopting the culture of innovation.
She affirmed this in her opening remarks at a sensitization webinar session organised for participants in the 2022 Federal Civil Service innovation competition and other Federal Civil Servants on Tuesday.
Reiterating the increasing popularity and importance of innovation in the world today, Dr. Yemi-Esan, urged civil servants to view innovation as a catalyst for positive change, which helps in the improvement of governance and scaling up of service quality.
According to her, the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation (OHCSF) has set up structures that will effectively support and sustain innovation in the system, among which is, tracking of annual Innovation challenge competitions.
This is instituted to encourage civil servants to think out of the box, cultivate ideas that will ensure quality service, efficiency and productivity in the public sector, she added.
The thematic areas for the 2022 innovation challenge include provision of solutions to security challenges faced by Civil Servants, with a view to creating an enabling environment for excellent delivery on their jobs.
The HoCSF also said that focus is on how to bring innovative solutions to bear on the present-day governance, through cost-cutting and increased revenue generating ideas.
Furthermore, the competition is expected to proffer solutions that will advance government business through Public-Private Partnerships (PPP), as well as the adoption of new technologies.
The novel modality adopted in the ongoing Competition, according to Dr. Yemi-Esan, is very apt, as it has exposed the participants to knowledge and skills on using innovative tools such as Zoom, Slack, Google sites, amongst others, which is helping in the effective and efficient discharge of their various duties.
Earlier, the Permanent Secretary, Special Duties Office (SDO)-OHCSF, Engr. Faruk Yusuf Yabo, disclosed that rapid changes in the economic and technological landscape within the field of Public Administration, has compelled bureaucracies around the globe to tidy up their organisational aspects, significantly, stressing that many developing countries have realised the need for innovation to drive customer-focused, cost effective and updated methods for improved performance within the Service.
He stated that the importance of Innovation in enhancing Public Service delivery necessitated the OHCSF, in line with the 2021-2025 Federal Civil Service Strategy and Implementation Plan (FCSSIP-25), to adopt Innovation as one of the six (6) priority initiatives required to take the Nigerian Public Sector to greater heights.
Engr. Yabo explained that ninety-one (91) civil servants, across various Ministries, extra-Ministerial Departments and Agencies (MDAs), have submitted innovative ideas for consideration, which would culminate in the final stage from which three (3) winning ideas will emerge with ten (10) other consolation prizes.
The first, second and third prizes are three million Naira (N3,000,000), one million, five hundred thousand Naira (N1,500,000) and one million Naira (N1,000,000), respectively, with ten (10) consolation prizes worth of two hundred thousand Naira (N200,000), each.
There were two presentations; “Team Formation and Selection Criteria” and “How to Pitch”. Afterwards, Participants were given ample opportunity to air their views, ask questions and make comments on the topics of the day.
They commented on issues such as discouraging Ministry-based ideas for individual, commercialisation of ideas, protection of innovative ideas (patent rights) and others. Responses were adequately provided by the Permanent Secretary, SDO.
Present at the Webinar Session were the Transformative Permanent Secretaries in the OHCSF and other Ministries and other Federal Civil Savants, while members of the private sector from within and outside the country together with some select Permanent Secretaries served as Judges/Panelists.
