FOR the country to experience any form of growth in her economy and bounce back speedily from the effects of COVID-19, it has to increase and grow her productivity, the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige and the Director General of National Productivity Center (NPC), Khasim Akor, have said.
Ngige and Akor spoke at the second Nigeria Public Sector Productivity and Innovation Summit, organized by the NPC in Abuja, with the theme: ‘Thriving at 60: Economic Productivity under Uncertain Times Cutting through Complexities and Delivering Value’.
According to the minister, “those that will thrive under these uncertain times are those who are proactive and can deliver value added products in the ever dynamic and competitive market place.”
Ngige regretted that Nigeria’s problems of underdevelopment have persisted over the years in spite of her vast natural and human resources.
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This, according to him, has been attributed to the abysmal performance of the various sectors of the economy on the productivity scale.
He said: “It is therefore apposite for us in Nigeria to demonstrate greater need for productivity consciousness. This has been the task before the National Productivity Centre, a vital parastatal of the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment.
“The National Productivity Centre has over the recent past been re-engineered, refocused and repositioned to confront this challenge with all vigour and has been able to substantially effect positive attitudinal changes and productivity improvement.”
While commending the leadership of the NPC for deeming it fit to organize the summit and for choosing such an impactful theme, the minister assured that the present administration will continue to support the Centre in the realization of its mandate.
He pointed out that the effect of the pandemic on the economy and lives could not be measured, as all the projected growth for 2020 had now been thrown out of the window.
“It is a known fact that for us to experience any form of growth in our economy and bounce back speedily from the effects of COVID-19 pandemic, we will have to increase and grow our productivity,” the minister said.
He explained that the government has floated so many social intervention funds to assist the populace to shake off the disruptive influence of COVID 19 and thrive in the performance of their various economic activities.
According to Ngige, it has also been the plan of the government to protect the vulnerable people in the society and increase productivity through proper spending.
The NPC boss, Dr. Akor who highlighted the responsibilities of the agency said the summit is designed to provide a platform for “reviewing, appraising and scaling ideas, innovations and investments required to build and nurture a productive economy.”
According to him, “it will also promote the relevance of productivity knowledge, tools, techniques and processes to the Nigerian public sector as the main drivers of government policies and programmes.”
Dr. Akor pointed out that increased productivity at the various sectoral levels was a task that everybody must be committed to, as Nigeria’s underdevelopment over the years has been attributed to the low productivity of the various sectors of the economy.
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