On Monday, the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation (HOCSF), Folasade Yemi-Esan, said the government’s decision to sustain innovation in the federal civil service sector was yielding tangible results among public servants.

Ms Yemi-Esan commended civil servants for their performance in the transformative and innovative service introduced by the federal government.

The HOCSF, who gave the commendation at the grand finale award ceremony of the 2023 Innovation Competition, which her office organised for civil servants across MDAs, said workers 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.”

Ms Yemi-Esan listed some results from innovative ideas by the civil servants, including the Compro CBT application for the conduct of confirmation examinations in the civil service and the Anonymous Reporting System (ARS), which is a whistle-blowing application.

In addition, the office space management solution has helped offices effectively reallocate and manage office spaces in the various phases of the federal secretariat complex in Abuja.

According to her, Nigerian civil servants can produce the best results when they are engaged and provided with an enabling environment to express themselves in their work.

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, Oluwole Cyril, the chairman of the Senate Committee on Establishment and Public Service Matters, commended the Office of the HOCSF for the ongoing transformation in the nation’s service sector.

Mr Cyril, who joined hands with the Minister of Communication, Innovation, and Digital Economy, Bosun Tijani, to donate an additional N2 million to the competition winner, said awarding winners for such competitions was encouraging for the participants.

He added that the Senate would continue to support the idea.

Meanwhile, Babawande Owolabi from the Ministry of Special Duties, who went home with N3 million, expressed gratitude to the federal government and the Office of the HOCS for the award.

Mr Owolabi got an additional N2 million donated by Messrs Cyril and Tijani.

The second winner received N1.75 million, the runner-up N1 million, and 10 others received consolation prizes of N200,000 each. 

(NAN)