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Empower employees with digital skills, ICSAN tells government

By Gloria Nwafor
30 March 2021   |   4:11 am
The Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators of Nigeria (ICSAN) has urged the government to build digital infrastructure to empower public sector employees to work remotely.

Registrar/Chief Executive Officer, Taiwo Olusesi (left); President and Chairman of Governing Council, Bode Ayeku; and Chair, Publicity and Advocacy Committee, Lynda Onefeli, all of the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators of Nigeria (ICSAN) during a press briefing in Lagos recently.

Says over 60 per cent employees idle for one year 
The Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators of Nigeria (ICSAN) has urged the government to build digital infrastructure to empower public sector employees to work remotely.

President of ICSAN, Bode Ayeku, at a media parley argued that over 60 per cent of public sector employees who had been at home for a year remained idle, a situation, he said, was not good for the economy.

Government introduced a work-from-home policy for workers between grade levels one to 12 in March 2020 to contain the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

Ayeku said most of the workers were ready to work remotely, as it was being done in most private sector organisations since the outbreak of COVID-19, but could not because they were not empowered digitally.

The directive, the ICSAN boss maintained, had impacted negatively on the private sector as services needed from the public sector had been slowed due to a few workers being on duty.

He urged the three tiers of government to consider it as a matter of urgency to provide tools for their employees to work from home, saying: “They should not think that COVID-19 would go, they should work as if COVID-19 has come to stay or would stay for a long period. That is what the private sector had done and that is what had given them the mileage to operate without any issue and that is the way to go.

“This has created a huge impact on the private sector. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) and other government agencies are all affected, because if there are delays in handling requests, they will say you can’t blame us, 60 per cent of our employees cannot come to work because of government’s directive.

“So, we need to be proactive. I don’t think it will take more than three months to address this. It is just a matter of getting a loan dedicated for that purpose. Do that to empower our employees so that they can work.”

Ayeku also suggested that the public sector workers could be redeployed to other sectors like schools to prepare students for examinations or health institutions.

He added: “We ask that there should be better management of human resources in this crisis period so that we will try as much as possible to use our resources efficiently and effectively so that the country can progress.”

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