By Emmanuel Obisue
Head of the Civil Service of the Federation Dr. Folasade Yemi-Esan, has called on civil servants to rise up to their expected responsibilities of providing effective leadership, policy frameworks and direction that 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.
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 has set up structures that will effectively support and sustain innovation in the system, among which is, tracking of annual Innovation Challenge competitions. This, she said, encouraged civil servants to think out of the box, cultivate ideas that will ensure quality service, efficiency and productivity in the public sector.
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 HoS 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, CFR 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.
