The Head of the Civil Service of the Federation (HOCSF), Dr Folasade Yemi-Esan on Monday, commended civil servants for their performance in transformative and innovative service introduced by the Federal Government.
Yemi-Esan said the government’s decision to sustain innovation in the Federal Civil Service sector was yielding tangible results among the civil servants.
Yemi-Esan, who gave the commendation at the Grand Finale Award Ceremony of the 2023 Innovation Competition, organised by her office for civil servants across MDAs, said civil servants have been able to proffer solutions to several issues.
She said, “It is pleasing to note that our resolve to sustain innovation in the service and discourage the suppression of ideas is yielding tangible results.
“Since the first edition in 2020, the Civil Service has been able to effectively deploy several solutions that were developed in-house.”
Yemi-Esan listed some of the results from innovative ideas by the civil servants to include; the Compro CBT Application for the conduct of confirmation examinations in the Civil Service, Anonymous Reporting System (ARS), which is a whistle-blowing application.
In addition, Office Space Management Solution, which has helped offices to effectively reallocate and manage office spaces in the various phases of the Federal Secretariat Complex in Abuja.
According to her, the best could be derived from Nigerian civil servants when they are engaged and provided with an enabling environment to find expression in the work they do.
She said, “This is why the Office of the HOCSF remains committed to sustaining and strengthening the structures established to drive innovation in the public service, in line with the policy thrust of the Federal Civil Service Strategy and Implementation Plan 2021-2025 (FCSSIP25). “
Also, Sen. Oluwole Cyril, Chairman, Senate Committee on Establishment and Public Service matters, commended the Office of the HOCSF for the ongoing transformation in the nation’s service sector.
Cyril, who joined hands with the Minister of Communication, Innovation and Digital Economy, Dr Bosun Tijani to donate an additional N2 million to the winner of the competition, said awarding winners for such competition was encouraging for the participants.
He added that the senate would continue to give support to the idea.
“It’s a good one to award when someone has performed well, you need to also encourage such a person and I think it’s supposed to be a continuous thing for the civil service to grow,”he said.
Meanwhile, Mr Babawande Owolabi from the Ministry of Special Duties, a winner of the competition, who went home with N3 million, expressed gratitude to the Federal Government and the Office of the HOCSF in particular for the award.
Owolabi, however, got an additional N2 million donated by the duo of Sen. Cyril and Tijani.
The second winner received N1.75 million, while the runner up went home with N1 million and 10 others went home with consolation prizes of N200, 000 each.
