Productivity is key for national development – Dr. Akor

The Director General of the National Productivity Centre (NPC), Mr Kashim Yunusa Akor, has said that productivity is vital for the economic development of any nation.

Akor stated this while addressing senior programme officers of the centre during a two-day retreat held in Nasarawa State recently.

He reminded the officers that the National Productivity Centre is the apex body for productivity promotion in Nigeria as established by the NPC Act in the Laws of Nigeria 2004.

In view of the recent restructuring, Akor said the centre has been repositioned and refocused to discharge its function, mandate and responsibilities in line with global best practices, stressing that the need to constantly update “our knowledge to specially designed capacity building programmes in order to improve the centre’s performance cannot be overemphasized.”

“As governing council members and senior management staff, we are saddled with the responsibility of ensuring that appropriate change management strategies are formulated and implemented for optimal performance,” he said.

“It will update participants’ knowledge and skills of the productivity improvement tools and techniques, acquaint participants with prerequisite skills and attitude to design and manage change, educate participants on strategies for productivity promotion and advocacy as well as equip participants on problem identification and solving techniques and also brainstorm on the way forward.”

Earlier, the chairman of the governing board of NPC Barr. Eyo Nsa Ekpo, said because there is a bridge between the NPC and the populace, the centre is planning a programme to bring the populace directly into contact with the agency so that they can key into the productivity of the nation’s economy.

“What we are trying to do is train our people to be self-reliant, encourage entrepreneurship zeal and create wealth. These also mean bringing other agencies of government to the synergy programme of the NPC in order to achieve this goal.

“We also need the private sector to work with; everyone should be on board because there is a very huge population who are not gainfully employed.”