Lagos to groom civil servants of international standards – Ambode

Governor Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos State has said the whole idea behind training and retraining of its workforce was to ensure that the State’s civil servants had a competitive edge over their foreign counterparts.

He said with Lagos being the fifth largest economy in Africa; the State government had ensured that training and retraining of its public servants would be a continuous exercise. According to him, the end result would be that anywhere in the world, Lagos public servants could compete effectively and favourably with their counterparts abroad.

Speaking at the opening session of the workshop tagged: ‘Integrating Contemporary Business Leadership into the corporate governance model of the Lagos State Civil Service’, held at Citiheights Hotel, Opebi, Lagos; the governor, who was represented by the Commissioner for Establishments, Training and Pensions, Dr. Akintola Benson Oke, noted that the delivery of value to citizens was the fundamental objective of any democratically-elected government.

He added: “This training is a vision of a Lagos State where government objectives, processes and services meet the contemporary global standards and reasonable expectations of the citizens.”

Oke also explained that since the substructure determines the superstructure, his government was committed to imbibing the culture of transparency and responsiveness on the public servants.

“In contemporary times, citizens have become sophisticated, hence, their expectations have been conditioned to demand and insist on compliance with global trends. Meeting these expectations is the central challenge for governments in contemporary times,” he said.

Conversely, a number of business leadership styles and trends as well as contemporary approaches with the view to identifying those that would fit into the Ambode administration, are to be examined at the training.