The Edo State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, Thursday, inaugurated a 13-man Edo State Productivity Committee to sustain the government’s efforts at stimulating productivity and driving the state’s industrial growth.
Obaseki, during the inauguration of the committee headed by Barr. Joel Edionwe, at the Government House in Benin City, said his government remains committed to engendering progress.
The governor said his government will continue to deliver value as well as quality services to the people, ensuring a better livelihood for residents of the state.
He noted, “Our focus is how we can make our institutions, country and society to deliver values to our people and stop us from looking outside to satisfy ourselves.
“The role of the government is to enable production to happen in the larger society. Government is to create an enabling environment for its citizens to produce and live a fulfilled life. Our role is to create the environment and provide the amenities for people to produce effectively and efficiently.”
“The government in offering services must be at its apex in terms of productivity, knowing that the money we spend is taxpayers’ money and have to show value to the people in managing the state.”
“If we are a productive society, we will create more jobs but our experience today is that we are losing jobs to other countries. We think it’s cheaper to bring people from other countries but we have to change our system and ensure we begin to produce,” Obaseki added.
The governor continued: “In Edo State, we knew this right from the beginning of this administration which is why we have to make government services efficient and for the people to see the value the government is creating. We must utilise our resources and ensure people deliver value to the society and state.
“We have started in Edo State to reposition our public service to deliver quality services to the people. We attracted people into the services, rewarding hard work and tracking productivity, thereby ensuring we get values. We train people, create the enabling environment and ensure they deliver services.
“We operate an e-governance platform to track what people are doing, raising the level of transparency. We have an academy where we continuously train our civil servants and would like to partner the National Productivity Center (NPC) to achieve this great feat.
He further stated, “We are rethinking our educational system to reset the minds of our children from a very early age to begin to think on how to deliver value and move away from the culture of certificates. Success should not be seen from a point of certificate but a point of value delivery to members of the society, either as manufacturers, a small business or as a government.”
Earlier, the Director General of NPC, Dr. Kashim Akor noted that the “Edo State Productivity Committee was set up to assist and complement government’s efforts as it relates to enhancing productivity and economic development in the state.”
Akor, represented by Abdullahi Hassan, further said, “Members of the committee are drawn from private and public sectors in other to achieve the set goals like stimulating productivity consciousness through productivity awareness campaigns in Ministries, Department and Agencies; productivity coaching and mentoring in schools, and measuring productivity trend in public and private sectors.”
On his part, the committee chairman thanked the governor for giving them the opportunity to serve, pledging to deliver on their mandate and contribute to the development of the state.