By Emmanuel Obisue
Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation was on Monday presented with the ISO 9001:2015 QMS certificate, for ensuring compliance with International Standards and Recommended Practices, SRPs in its operations.
Receiving the certificate in her office, Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Dr. Folashade Yemi-Esan said the significance of the “milestone marks the climax of one of the carefully selected and choreographed series of activities geared towards total transformation of the Federal Civil Service in Nigeria”.
She noted that the “ISO 9001:2015 is the world’s most recognised QMS Standard that provides the framework and guidance needed to help organizations consistently meet stakeholders expectations, regulatory requirements and demonstrate continuous improvement”.
“The importance and benefits of ISO 9001:2015 QMS certification to the Office of the Head of Service is that it now empowers us to continuously provide quality, innovative, efficient and people-centred services at a globally recognised level of excellence,” Yemi-Esan added.
She acknowledged the Aig-Imoukhuede Foundation, for its “un-quantifiable” interventions which were key to the success of the process.
In her remarks, CEO of Digital Jewels Africa, Adedoyin Odunfa noted that organizations grow in scope and complexity of operations, there is a tendency for bureaucracy, inefficiency and loss of focus to set in negatively impacting productivity, effectiveness and the attainment of their institutional goals and mandate.
“The OHCSF alongside many public and private sector organizations worldwide can attest to this. Given the centrality of the OHSCF to the civil service, the ability to streamline and simplify its processes to systematically imbibe a quality philosophy that delivers high quality services to its stakeholders is a game changer for the entire Nigerian civil service and the nation as a whole.
“Digital Jewels Africa is especially thrilled and humbled to have been selected for this formidable task and driven the process end to end. Digital Jewels Africa is certified to the global ISO9001 standard for QM standard alongside the ISO27001 standard for ISM whilst also accredited as a QSA for the PCIDSS, making it the only professional services firm in Africa to be so accredited and uniquely positioning us to deliver this game changing initiative.
“Indeed, we have had the privilege of supporting the most progressive organisations in Africa today to gain accreditation to global best practice standards such as ISO9001, ISO27001, ISO20000, ISO22301, PCIDSS and other related standards, we fully understand what it takes and what benefits are accruable to successful institutions,” she noted.
Explaining what the ISO9001 standard certification entails, she said it “aims to develop a veritable systematic QMS in an organization: this involves streamlining, standardizing & optimizing key processes to consistently meet customer/stakeholder requirements to enhance satisfaction”.
She cautioned that “attaining the accreditation is just the beginning of a continuous improvement journey anchored by a quality oriented culture”, and that the process “will be monitored by the international independent certification authority through annual audits”.
