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Phillips Consulting (PCL), leading consulting firm in Africa, has tasked the Federal Ministry of Interior and other agencies under it, to embrace talent development, technology and teamwork to deliver the Federal Government’s promise of taking 100 million Nigerians out of poverty by 2023.
The statement was made during the Ministry of Interior’s retreat in Osun State, handled by PCL, recently.
During the retreat, the managing director of PCL, Mr. Robert Taiwo, stated that only talent development, deployment of technology and teamwork among the staffers across the ministries and agencies of government could deliver President Muhammadu Buhari’s promise by 2023.
According to him, “The retreat was designed to generate innovative strategies, policies and programmes for reforming Nigeria’s internal security agencies, thus enabling them to further address the challenge of insecurity in the country.”
Taiwo said, “There was significant focus on how the ministry will execute the projects and programmes that will deliver the mandate.”
Meanwhile, the chairman of the company, Mr. Funso Phillips, in his paper titled “The Case for Change and Impact on Human and Capital Development,” said the key factors to drive performance within the public sector include adoption of innovative funding models to address the perennial challenge of insufficient funds.
Phillips said, “Digital transformation deployment will aid improved service delivery as well as improved systems for managing talent, which constitutes the core of the agencies’ delivery capacity.”
He stressed that the importance of character over competence, while recommending that the leadership of the ninistry, CDCFISB board and paramilitary agencies should ensure that their people were given the best training and development adequately empowered and appropriately deployed.
The Phillips Consulting managing director, who wrapped up the retreat and provided insights into strategic project failure, said, “Government projects fail due to the fact that agencies of government focus on cost increment and scope creep.”
He explained the power of purpose and how it is important for the presidential mandate and its underlying rationale to be shared across all facets of the ministry and its supporting agencies. He also clarified the need for urgency in a fast-changing world. He described the importance of governance, key performance indicators and identifying funding sources for the entire project lifecycle.
The entire leadership of the ministry, led by the minister, Ogebeni Rauf Aregbesola, left the retreat with a set of plans that will deliver the presidential mandate in a collaborative and accelerated way.
NOSAK group floats 5-year plan for business expansion
The management of Nosak Group has embarked on a five-year development agenda for business expansion and to boost the gross domestic product of the Nigerian economy. This was disclosed at the 2020 eecutive management retreat in Lagos, recently.
Presenting the business scope for the mid-term framework, the executive chairman, Dr. Toni Ogunbor, said the group has put in place a number of projects in the coming years to drive expansion that would provide jobs for Nigerians and also contribute to the GDP of the Nigerian economy.
“We have put plans in place to commence and implement the cassava-to-ethanol project in Edo State, we will also commence the implementation of the 1,000 metric tonnes integrated vegetable oil refinery in the Export Processing Zone and consolidate on our Oil Palm Backward Integration Project, also in Edo State”, he said.
He stated that the group has commenced the procurement of additional fleets to expand the operations of Nosak Haulage Limited to service customers at optimum levels. 
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Ogunbor explained that the group is riding on the back of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA), which will open up the economy for further export of non-oil products to earn foreign exchange.
“With the completion and commissioning of our ultra-modern state-of-the-art retail packaging line for Nosak Farm Produce in Lagos, we will be ready to export our brand, Nosak Famili Vegetable and Palm Oil to other neighbouring countries of Africa,” he said.
With the business expansion plans, Nosak Group aims to create over 1,000 jobs for Nigerians in various sectors, which include oil palm and cassava plantation, production and derivatives of these raw materials, manufacturing, haulage, real estate and financial services. This will cut down the growing rate of unemployment among Nigerian youths.
As a corporate organisation, Nosak Group considers all employees as her greatest asset. Hence in the coming years, all employees will enjoy enhancement of manpower base through trainings to develop internal capacity and recruitment to develop best-in-class personnel.
FirstBank lift education
•Supports schools with FirstEdu N10b loan
Nigerian financial services provider, First Bank of Nigeria Plc, has announced that, last year, it supported educational institutions in the country with loans to the tune of over N10 billion.
The bank’s support is carried out through its FirstEdu product, an educational solution created to enhance facilities in schools, with a view to improving the quality of education across the country.
FirstEdu loan is targeted at private nursery, primary and secondary schools to assist the in achieving their desired growth in the medium and long term. The product provides funding to replace old furniture and equipment, pay staff salaries, purchase new or fairly-used buses as well as refurbish dilapidated buildings and classroom blocks. With the product, school owners/proprietors can stay ahead to make learning easy and conducive for students.
The product enables schools to access facilities with no tangible collateral, apart from domiciling school fees account with the bank.
On the other hand, FirstEdu portal is a modular and robust web-based enterprise portal that enables tertiary educational institutions manage academic, administrative, professional, logistics and payment challenges.
The product features and benefits include e-learning, virtual library and facilitation of exchange programmes with foreign educational institutions, academic and student events/time-table/calendar management, school fees payment via the Internet, online information and result checking, and interactive community forum between students and teachers. It also affords applicants the opportunity of enrolling from the comfort of their homes or any location around the world, no licensing, installation and maintenance cost and plugs avenues for revenue leakage, among others.
According to Chuma Ezirim, group executive, e-Business and Retail Products, First Bank of Nigeria, “With FirstEdu, private schools across the various tiers of education in Nigeria, elementary, secondary and tertiary, have the right tool to boost their business to the level they desire. We are pleased to have already disbursed over N10 billion loans to schools in one year and we would continue to support growth in this key sector of our economy.
“At FirstBank, we identify with the impact of the educational sector on the socio-economic activities of the country and importantly the lives of everyone.”
