An entrepreneurial programme for potential retirees of Federal Civil Service in Nigeria has been launched.
Head of Civil Service Of the Federation, Folashade Yemi-Esan launched the Programme in Abuja, Nigeria saying it was initiated to prepare Civil Servants for life after service.
Represented by the Permanent Secretary, Service Welfare Office, Office of the Head of Civil Service Of the Federation, Dr Ngozi Onwudiwe, Yemi-Esan said the Programme is a sub-initiative of one of the 6 pillars of the Federal Civil Service Strategy and Implementation Plan 2021 – 2025.
“The Federal Public Service Entrepreneurship Programme 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”
“Thus, some aspects of the Programme create window for those in Service to earn supplementary income to improve their quality of life, 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,” she explained.
Agripreneurship Start-up
According to her, the Programme consists of two components; the Agripreneurship Start-up Scheme and the Pre-Retirement Training and Business Start-up Scheme.
“The setting up of the Agripreneurship Start-up Scheme is premised on the provisions of Section 2(b) Part 1 of the fifth section of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria which permits Nigerian Public Servants to engage in farming while in Service. Hence both serving and exiting Public Servants can participate in this Scheme. On the other hand, the Pre-Retirement Training and Business Start-up Scheme is tailored towards preparing Public Servants for life Post-Service by providing opportunities for them to acquire new skills for new career choices, “ Yemi-Esan emphasised.
Physical stress
The Administrator, Public Service Institute of Nigeria, Abdulganiyu Obatoyibo, said the Programme would guarantee social and economic relief while reducing emotional and physical stress as well as poverty amongst retirees.
He further stated that working alone does not automatically create wealth.
“Public Servants should realise that we live in a progressive world where the desire to be innovative and creative is the needed approach for economic survival and family development.”
“You’ll always remain poor if you cannot create wealth. If you cannot create wealth, if you cannot add value,if you cannot produce, you’ll be poor. So what’s happening now is an attempt to imbibe training and skills,” Obatoyibo noted.
The Director, Employee and Industrial Relations in the office of the Head of Civil Service Of the Federation, Mrs Omoabie Akpan said the Agripreneurship Programme will commence with theoretical training at the Public Service Institute of Nigeria for a week.
He said the curriculum would expose the participants to animal husbandry such as apiculture and snailery, crop farming, Fish farming from production of fishlings to nurturing them to maturity for economic gains, vegetable farming, Green House farming, Agro processing and the process of canvessing some of the agricultural waste to wealth.
“The hands-on training for two weeks will immediately follow at selected farms within and around the FCT, there, the participants will be exposed to the practical aspect of agricultural value chain for which they have expressed interest,” he stated.
She explained the procedures for participation as follows;
(a) Sensitization and profiling of interested Officers will be done at various MDAS.
(b) The list of nominated officers will be forwarded to Employee and Industrial
Relations Department, Service Welfare Office, office of the Head of Civil Service Of the Federation.
(d) Cost implication for the training will be borne by Ministries, extra-Ministerial Departments and Agencies (MDAs) and payment will be made to the PSIN.
The first batch of the Agripreneurship Training Programme is made up of eighty-seven participants from the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Federal Ministry of Water Resources, the Ministry of Petroleum Resources and the Office of the Civil Service of the Federation.
The Agribusiness start up components of the Programme Is targeted at preparing prospective retirees that have three years prior to retirement for life after service by providing opportunity for them to acquire new skills which would enable them have new career choices after retirement.
Efforts are ongoing to fully develop the business start-up component.
The programme is in collaboration with the Bank of Industry.
Lateefah Ibrahim
