ABUJA – The Centre for Management Development (CMD) has called on the leadership of public and private sectors to develop the skills of their workforce to help contribute positively to the economy.
The Director-General of CMD, Dr Kabir Usman, made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Wednesday.
Usman said that if the workers were given extraordinary skills required in the sectors, it would enhance their performance and productivity toward achieving Federal Government’s Transformation Agenda.
“We are looking at knowledge base economy. You cannot have knowledge base economy unless you develop the skills of your workforce.
“We provide training programmes on skills and attitude to work to serve as ingredient to enhance productivity and performance of workforce.
“This is necessary so that they can make their contributions to the success of the government’s transformation agenda,’’ Usman said.
He said that a survey conducted recently by CMD revealed quite a number of skill gaps in areas of Information Communication Technology (ICT), communication skills and others.
“Typical example where we have shortcoming is in the area of ICT. There is significant number of staff that need to improve their skills in terms of ICT.
“We have also discovered that many people have no communication skills to communicate effectively, even issues about writing a proposal and accessing funding. All these required extraordinary skills,’’ the director-general said.
He recalled that in 2005, the National Centre for Economic Management and Administration was merged together with CMD to discharge dual responsibilities.
“It means that we have to make our own contribution in area of human capital development and make contribution in terms of economy.
“Typical example where we made the stride in terms of transformation agenda is in area of managerial capacity for national development with the particular reference to human capital.
“We have variety of training programmes, targeting policies makers, lawmakers and decision makers across the country both at local, state and federal government levels’’.(NAN)
