AKOR SYLVESTER, Abuja
The Director General of the National Productivity Centre (NPC) Baffa Babba Dan’Agundi has reiterated the commitment of the centre to Tinubu’s agenda of growing GDP to USD1trillion by 2027 and creating decent jobs for Nigerians.
Dan’Agundi who stated this at the Labour Correspondents Association of Nigeria (LACAN) Maiden Edition of Media Parley with stakeholders in the Labour Employment, Productivity and Social Security Sector in Abuja Thursday, said the centre is partnering with industries and businesses, including SMEs and governments at all tiers, to implement cutting-edge productivity solutions and provide capacity building support to help organizations thrive in a dynamic and competitive environment.
He informed that, on assumption of office as the Director General of the Centre on 16th July 2024, he pledged total commitment to the Centre’s mission which is to develop the mindset and institutionalize productivity in the citizenry for the enhancement of service delivery and quality of life, all towards the attainment of higher levels of productivity in all sectors of the Nigerian economy, to achieve economic development and collective prosperity.
The Director General outlined the scorecard of his administration in the past 4 months, curbing youth unemployment in Nigeria, publication of competitiveness rankings for Nigeria in the IMD year 2024 world competitiveness reports, strengthening Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) through the installation of productivity and quality improvement programmes (P&QIP) and productivity promotion and advocacy
According to him: “Upon resumption, I set a target of curbing youth unemployment by creating 1 million jobs without expending any funds from the government.
“To meet this target, we drew on a network of consultants and charged them to leverage their network and seek opportunities that offer training, internship, job placement, and empowerment that create new business activities for the Nigerian youths. I am delighted to state the following:
“An agreement was signed with Sicilsaldo Contracting Nigeria Limited (SCNL) for the training, job placement of Nigerian youths in the fields of Industrial pipefitting, Carpentry, Sport Tech (coaching, sport management, injury prevention, construction and safety, project management, etc. Through this initiative, over 100 thousand youths will benefit.
“An MOU was also signed with Accolade Dynamics, through their partnership with DAIMLAS AI Ecosystems Builders for 200 thousand National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) and ex-NYSC members to be on board to their AI platform to identify and pursue their pathways. Through this platform, the youths will up skill themselves to meet the profile required by companies on the same platform.
“Another initiative we have embarked upon is the Aquaponics and Greenhouse Technology, and Empowerment programme. It is aimed at meeting two of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s 8-point Agenda: Food security and curbing unemployment. Through this initiative, over 100 thousand youths will be trained in batches on Aquaponics and greenhouse technology”.
Continuing, he said: “In line with the mandate of monitoring productivity trends and providing timely performance information that informs policy decisions, the Centre partnered with the IMD to determine Nigeria’s competitiveness ranking for the year 2023. A total of 340 indicators that spoke to Nigeria’s level of productivity were determined.
“The report will serve as a veritable tool for policy-makers, as it contains benchmarks and areas for improvement which constitute a clear path towards economic development.
“Through the Productivity and Quality Improvement Programme (P&QIP), the Centre strengthens the operational and managerial capacities of organizations. This is done by deploying productivity audits and solutions that will grow enterprises, improve efficiency, quality of service and products, keep people in jobs and contribute to the increase in GDP. The following are the organizations where P&QIP were installed under my 5 months stewardship:
“TRT Aredo Furniture & Woods (100 Workers Trained), Tailors Association of Nigeria (TAN) (300 tailors trained), Sir Dick & A. limited (300 staff trained)
“A robust productivity awareness creation framework which involves all media of communication (print, electronic and online), was put in place to constantly sensitize the citizenry to the strategic relevance of productivity and the need to develop a mindset for productivity improvement and sustained productivity culture. Some of these are:
“Productivity Coaching and Mentoring
This programme, which is carried out in secondary schools, was carried out in the FCT and 19 States offices.
“The aim of the programme is to instill a productivity culture early in the lives of the secondary school student. The instruments used are the formation of productivity clubs in schools, academic Quiz competitions and lectures on productivity tools and techniques. Since I took over the mantle of leadership in the centre,
Over 50,000 students have been coached and mentored, and new batches of students are currently being coached.
Under my leadership, the centre has also partnered with Industrial Awakening, a consultancy firm, to launch the Unity Robot project, where 10,000 kids from across the country are participating in building the Unity Robot. This will inculcate a “can-do” spirit in the children and a mindset of productivity.
“The Centre has also signed an MOU with UBEB to carry the programme to more schools within the FCT.
“The National Youth Service Corps Lecture
The Youth Corps members are also in the dragnet for mindset orientation. To this end, over one hundred thousand (100,000) youth corps members have been trained and will soon be registered on an AI platform to discover their AI pathways: Some are to be reskilled, while others are to be linked with international enterprises to seek jobs”.
Other achievements he noted were promoting human resources development to build a knowledge-based economy, researching IN strategic productivity areas for the enhancement of competitiveness and economic growth, observance of National Productivity Day (NPD) and conferment of national productivity order of merit award, networking and partnering with other international productivity institutions for national development and others.
The NPC boss who said there was a need for increased productivity, maintained that increased productivity is the lifeblood of any economy; driving growth, competitiveness and development.
“As we navigate the challenges of our nation and chart a path towards recovery, we must make concerted efforts to boost our productivity optimize our resources and enhance our competitiveness”, he stated
Speaking earlier, the Acting Chairman of LACAN, Patrick Abulu said the parley aimed to foster a deeper understanding of the issues affecting workers and employers and to explore ways in which the association can work together to promote fair labour practices and improve the overall employment landscape in Nigeria.
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