FG launches pre-retirement entrepreneurship programme for civil servants

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By Emmanuel Obisue

Federal Government has launched the implementation of the Federal Public Service Entrepreneurship Start-up Programme, FPSEP, for both serving and pre-retiring officers in the Federal Public Service.

While flagging off the programme on Monday in Abuja, Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Dr. Folashade Yemi-Esan noted that the programme which is a sub-initiative of one of the six pillars of the Federal Civil Service Strategy and Implementation Plan 2021 – 2025, FCSSIP-25, was “developed out of the need to pay greater attention to the welfare of the Public Servants who constitute the administrative machinery for implementing Government policies and Programmes”.

She expressed hope that the programme will create a window for those in service to earn supplementary income to improve their lives, enable those retiring to cope with life after service, “while at the same time contributing to the development of the other sectors of the economy and by implication increase the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the country”.

Yemi-Esan who was represented by the Permanent Secretary, Service Welfare Office, Dr. Ngozi Onwudiwe, explained that the programme consists of two components namely: “Agripreneurship Start-up Scheme; and Pre-Retirement Training and Business Start-up Scheme”.

In her remarks, Dr. Emem Omokaro, Director-General of National Senior Citizen Centre, noted that the entrepreneurial skills that will be garnered by retiring citizens will be channeled into productive ventures as a means of generating funds outside their pensions.

She added that the programme will also help change the negative narrative that old and retired public servants have nothing more to offer to society after exiting service.