Akwa Ibom prepares workers for life after service

Akwa Ibom State Government has organised a three-day pre-retirement workshop for senior civil servants in the state. The workshop focused on entrepreneurship, nutrition, cooperatives, business and business plan formulation, legal framework in business registration and basic marketing techniques, among others.

Organised by Ministry of Information and Strategy in collaboration with Anieno and Associates, a multi-sectoral consultancy firm in Uyo, the pre-retirement workshop also aimed at exposing senior civil servants to the rudiments of living a happy and better life in good health, years after exiting active government service.

Declaring the workshop open in Uyo, the Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Ini Ememobong, said it became expedient as most retirees lead very unpleasant life soon after retirement, which often lead to untimely deaths.

“In order, therefore, to prepare them and put them in the right frame of mind, it has become necessary to undertake this training to provide participants with necessary knowledge, values and entrepreneurial skills to give them a good life after retirement.

“Civil servants are allowed to engage in agriculture, which is an entrepreneurial venture. This workshop will also expose participants to other ventures they can explore on retirement to serve as an additional source of income to their monthly pension”, Ememobong said.

He noted that in other climes, government workers look forward to retirement year as it offers them freedom to enjoy themselves but regretted that in Nigeria and most states of the Federation, including Akwa Ibom, civil servants dread retirement and therefore fail to plan for it.

Earlier in his welcome address, the Principal Partner of Anieno Ventures, Mr. Umanaette Udoh, said, with good planning and preparation, retirement would be a very interesting period of one’s life, as it is the time, a person has control of his time to exhibit his passion in any chosen vocation.