The Nation Newspaper

Tag: productivity

  • Experts move to boost productivity of farmed animals

    Veterinary experts are delivering a £5.5 million initiative to improve the health and productivity of farmed animals in sub-Saharan Africa.

    The scheme aims to boost the livelihood of livestock farmers by delivering evidence-based technologies that offer sustainable solutions to their challenges.

    The Supporting Evidence Based Interventions initiative (SEBI) has received funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

    Three programmes have been established to help address different challenges.

    The first programme aims to identify evidence-based interventions to cut death rates and reproductive losses in dairy cattle in Ethiopia, Nigeria and Tanzania.

    Sub-grants will be provided to enable research groups to investigate the causes of these losses. The first of the grants has been awarded to University of Glasgow to build a disease surveillance platform in Tanzania.

    A second programme will facilitate data gathering and the development of analytical tools to better track livestock performance.

    Researchers are setting up an international network of practitioners—the Livestock Data for Decisions (LD4D) community—to standardise systems of data management across borders.

    The third strand of the initiative will fund researchers to evaluate innovative veterinary interventions for their use in developing countries.

    SEBI has already awarded £125,000 to the University of Guelph to fund field trials of a hand held device that can detect animal diseases. The portable sensor allows dairy farmers to rapidly diagnose specific diseases in cows from a small volume of blood or milk.

    A team of eight has been recruited to drive forward the SEBI initiative, which is based at the University of Edinburgh’s Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies.

    Researchers are working with a range of partners to meet their targets, including Scotland’s Rural College, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation in Australia and the International Livestock Research Institute in Kenya.

    Project lead Professor Andy Peters said: “SEBI is a pilot project but we anticipate that, if we are successful, it will expand to become the ‘go to’ organisation for the evaluation of novel veterinary technologies and livestock improvement interventions in Africa.”

  • Address food productivity, others, expert urges

    Vice President Corporate & Government Relations, Olam Nigeria, Ade Adefeko, has urged farmers and the food industry to address the challenge of agricultural competitiveness and productivity.

    Speaking during Akindelano Legal Practitioners’ seminar on Transforming Nigeria’s Agriculture and Agro-Allied Industry  in Lagos, Adefeko stressed the need for practical support to farmers on improving quality and cutting costs to improve competitiveness.

    He explained that the private sector has an important role to play in promoting sustainable and inclusive economic growth through initiatives  that  will benefit thousands of farmers, both women and men, across the  sector.

    According to him, improving rice production will help the  agri-sector  will help the  sector to  increase profitability sustainably, and improve farmer livelihoods.

    He announced that  Olams as a way of supporting the industry has rolled out sustainable agricultural standards and practices throughout its rice-production value chain .

    Adefeko said Olam was investing $150 million to set up two state-of-the-art animal feed mills, poultry breeding farms and a hatchery to produce day-old-chicks in Nigeria.

    He said the project will be Nigeria’s largest integrated animal feed mill, breeding farm and hatchery. He said $100 million had been committed to building and operating the facilities in Kaduna State while $50 million is for a second investment in an integrated poultry and fish feed mill located in Kwara State.

    The other investment is thev ongoing development of a 10,000-hectare rice farm and mill in Nasarawa State.

    To support Nigeria’s quest for rice self-sufficiency, he  said Olam aims to scale up production to over 40,000mt of paddy rice yearly.

  • Salami, others for productivity summit

    All roads will lead to Muson Centre, Lagos in mid May for the much coveted TAM Productivity summit.

    The event is to be chaired by a media executive and council member of Women in Business (WIMBIZ), Mrs. Olubunmi Aboderin-Talabi.

    The summit which is the brainchild of SB Telecoms and Devices,  a Lagos-based technology company with specialty in time attendance management and productivity solutions, will take place in mid May at Muson Centre, Lagos.

    Tagged: ‘Boosting Employee Performance Beyond Pecuniary Benefits,’ the summit will have Dr. Doyin Salami, Associate Professor at the Lagos Business School (LBS) as the keynote speaker among other panellists and discussants namely: Babatunde Fuad Durosinmi-Etti, Commissioner, Wealth Creation & Employment; Deremi Atanda Executive Director, SystemSpecs, Omome Osime-Oloyede ,  Managing Director, XL Express & Logistics .

    Justifying the need for the summit, Chief Executive Officer, SB Telecoms & Devices, Mr. Afolabi Abiodun said: “There have been lots of complaints and reservations over the productivity output of today’s employees. A large number of employers are critical of the laissez-faire attitude displayed by their staff which negatively affects business performance and the company’s bottom-line.”

  • Labour minister to Nigerians: improve productivity

    Labour minister to Nigerians: improve productivity

    •President to present productivity awards

    Minister of Labour and Employment Senator Chris Ngige has urged Nigerians to strive towards improved productivity in tandem with the change agenda of President Muhammadu Buhari.

    According to the minister, the agenda was aimed at sustainable growth of the nation.

    Ngige spoke while briefing the media on the activities marking the celebration of the 16th National Productivity Day and conferment of the National Productivity Order of Merit (NPOM) award on deserving individuals and organisations.

    The award will be presented tomorrow by President Muhammadu Buhari.

    He said: “I wish to appeal to Nigerians to reflect deeply on the significance of this celebration, especially in the face of Mr. President’s Change Agenda and our vision of bringing the economy out of recession to a path of steady growth and prosperity.

    “We should constantly strive to improve our productivity in all facets of our daily lives towards ensuring sustainable growth and development of our dear nation.”

    The minister added that the present administration was conscious of the critical role improved productivity could play in the realisation of the change agenda, “as no nation can be self-reliant and competitive in the international market without productivity improvement in all sectors of its economy”.

    “Indeed, no nation enjoys a standard of living higher than its level of productivity.” He affirmed.

    Ngige emphasised that the National Productivity Order of Merit award was one positive step by government to stimulate the psyche of Nigerians towards redirecting their efforts to the growth of the economy.

    He explained that the 16th edition would witness the conferment of the National Productivity Order of Merit award on 15 deserving individuals and six organisations.

    The awardees are: Prof. Ibrahim Abubakar Njodi, Mrs. Mary Adenike Ibikunle, Dr. Kabiru Ibrahim Aliyu, Mr. Olubola Olakunle Aikulola, Mr. Idi Mohammed Maleh, Mrs. Elizabeth Igelegba, Mr. Aminu Aliyu Bisalla Mrs. Saratu AZI, Prof. Mohammed Sanni Abdulkadir and Dr. Yemi Kale

    Others include Comrade Mike Akpotosewe, Prof. Ukandi Damachi, Emeka Okwuosa (an engineer), Prof. Okey Mbonu, Kashim Ali (an engineer) and Fidson Health Care Plc Lagos, Olam Nigeria Ltd, FrieslandCampina Wamco Nig. Ltd, Nigeria Bottling Company Ltd and Chicason Group.

    Activities marking the celebration of the day includes award lecture titled “Productivity for Sustainable Entrepreneurship and Employment.”

    It will be delivered by Honourable Minister of Mines and Steel Development Dr. Kayode Fayemi.

    Made  in Nigeria goods will be exhibited.

  • Enhancing productivity in agriculture

    SIR: One of the greatest obstacles standing in the way of farmers and agricultural investors in Nigeria is poor access to loans and other credit facilities. This is often due to their evaluation by commercial banks as a less creditworthy group, coupled with their notion of farming as a high-risk venture. Hence, there is need for government to evolve ways of removing constraints posed to growth in agriculture, especially for smallholder farmers who find credit facilities inaccessible. While the existing individual single digit loan interest offered by the government is commendable, it is however difficult for individual farmers to benefit from it. Therefore, to enable rural farmers have easy access to credit facilities and foster rural agricultural productivity, due consideration should be given to a wholesale packaging of rural farmers.

    Lack of storage facilities, such as warehouses, cold storage and paved roads as well as reliable energy, have also continued to contribute to post-harvest losses among farmers particularly in rural communities. Nigeria produces more than enough food to feed its citizens, unfortunately, not all the food that we produce get to our table. Therefore, curbing post-harvest losses is a critical factor for achieving food security. The challenge is that a large percentage of the food Nigerians consume is produced by rural smallholder farmers who do not have the capacity to acquire or access storage facilities to store their harvest.

    Existing government institutions such as Nigerian Stored Products Research Institute and the Raw Material Research Development Council (RMRDC) should synergize their efforts in a bid to reducing post-harvest losses and assisting smallholder farmers to achieve on-farm processing.

    Remarkably, the private sector and international organizations have critical roles to play also as government cannot shoulder the responsibility all alone. They can specialise in innovative ways of training smallholder farmers to enhance productivity and efficiency and ultimately ensuring food security and accelerating economic development. In doing so, they often align their developmental and intervention schemes with existing government policies on agriculture.

    For food to be available and affordable in the country, government needs to unleash a holistic multi-stakeholder approach to the agriculture value chain and food supply chain development. By so doing, many people will be engaged, either working directly or providing enabling and supportive services for the farms through aggregation of produce, processing, packaging, transportation, marketing, wholesale, retail, catering services, among others.

     

    • Hakeem Ogunniyi,

    Lagos.

  • MDAs to get productivity units

    The Buhari administration will establish Productivity Units in Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), Minister of Labour and Employment Senator Chris Ngige has said.

    He spoke in Abuja  when he opened a productivity awareness lecture for middle cadre (Grade levels 07 to 12) officers, who constitute the  target group that handle major functions in the ministry and in the public sector.

    Ngige said the awareness lecture was very important to his ministry because of its bearing on the success of the change mantra of President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration.

    He said the Federal Government has continued to invest heavily in reform programmes directed at transforming the public service to tackle head-on the various challenges that have threatened the nation’s survival.

    In his address, the Director-General, National Productivity Centre, Alhaji Kashim Yunusa Akor, noted that presentation of the lecture, which has been designed for all MDAs, was predicated on the need to sharpen the skills and competences of the human resources in the public service for improved productivity and efficient service delivery.

  • ‘Human resource managers should drive productivity’

    Human Resource Managers in key sectors of the economy should help drive businesses in their organisations, President, Managerial School of Excellence (MSE), Leke Olufade, has said.

    Speaking at the MSE quarterly dialogue in Lagos, with the theme: ‘CEO: What do they want from HR function” he said the reason mostchief executive officers (CEOs) underplay the function of human resource managers (HRMs) and consider their role as second rated support services, was because many of the managers lack the capacity to demonstrate productivity.

    He explained that aside motivating their workforce and urging them to abide by regulatory guidelines, the managers should alongside their CEOs drive productivity and company’s profitability.

    According to him, having a broad understanding of the CEOs’ goal is key to working in line with them. “What CEOs want is enthusiasm for the business, not turf protection. They want you to initiate ideas that can make the company productive; they want strong presence among executive team and talent management. They want to know the next generation of managers and executives and how they are being developed,” he said.

    Olufade also said CEOs expect HRMs to have a second knowledge of what can advance the productivity of a company, a well-executed HR strategy and efficient cooperate infrastructure to increase employee commitment and capability, design a behooving organisational reward and above all, integrity.

    To successfully deliver on these goods, Olufade advised managers to take cognizance of their CEOs ‘wants and harness  resources needed to solve their company’s problems.  Stressing that HRMs must constantly endeavor to invest in personal capacity expansion through extensive training in other relevant fields, he said: “Business is more global than before so it makes sense that CEOs want an HRM with an international outlook; a person who has lived in different markets.”

    Advocating a proper repositioning of the HR duty, former Divisional Managing Director, UAC, Nelson Suulola said as a business manager, the HR must understand the company’s business strategy, the underlying cost structures and how the information is derived.

    He agreed that the future of human resource management transcends how it’s being practised as there are still hurdles to cross.

    The dialogue added that CEOs measure the level of HRD success on the basis of extant working process, performance management system, disciplinary system, quantifiable outcomes, and qualitative outcomes in terms of credibility of mangers as administration enablers.

  • NPC, Osun partner on workers’ productivity

    The  Director-General of  the National Productivity Centre (NPC), Alhaji Kashim Akor,  has spoken of plans to establish  a branch in Osogbo, Osun State capital.

    He spoke when Osun State Governor, Rauf Aregbesola, visited the NPC head office in Abuja.

    He said the centre would key into the governor’s programmes in ensuring accelerated human resources development and capacity building for the Osun public service.

    Akor disclosed that the  governor’s visit was the first of its kind by a serving governor in the history of the centre.

    “The NPC would help in building the capacity of the state workforce and organisations through training and installation of Productivity and Quality Improvement Programme (P&QIP).

    “We would also want your assistance in the establishment of a state productivity committee in units in all Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) in the state as well as in providing airtime on Osun Radio and Television for dissemination of productivity messages,” he said.

    Governor Aregbesola stressed the importance of the NPC in making  the workforce efficient and proactive in service delivery.

    He said he would actively engage the centre in making  the state civil service productive toward achieving  the All Progressives Congress (APC) change agenda.

  • Microsoft educates non- profits on productivity tools

    Technology company, Microsoft Nigeria on Wednesday educated non-profit organizations on the use of tools to enhance productivity.

     

    As part of its commitment to empower every individual and organization on the planet to achieve more, Microsoft conducted a Customer Immersion Experience (CIE) for four non-profit organizations on the use of the Microsoft productivity tools.

     

    The technology giant has before now empowered non-profits with Microsoft productivity tools with an intention to equip them with the necessary tools that will aid their productivity, but the introduction of the CIE was to aid the utilization of these tools.

     

    Speaking on the CIE program, Citizenship Manager, Microsoft Nigeria, Olusola Amusan identified that Microsoft is innovating in so many ways to solve the basic challenges that mankind faces with the use of technology.

     

    “The Microsoft Customer Immersion Experience (CIE) is a hands-on introduction to Microsoft’s suite of productivity tools. A true-to-life user experience; CIE takes you through everyday organization situations, such as working remotely, analyzing data and collaborating with co-workers; and lets you see how Microsoft products make it all easy, convenient yet secure.”

     

    Participants at the event – Junior Chamber International (JCI) Nigeria, Paradigm initiative Nigeria, The Future Project and Nigeria Leadership Initiative, left equipped with the Windows 10 and various apps on Office 365 i.e. Skype for Business, Yammer, One Note, Delve, Sway amongst others.

     

    Commenting on the programme, Digital Media Manager, Paradigm Initiative Nigeria; Olamide Egbayelo applauded Microsoft on the Customer Immersion Experience (CIE) initiative.

     

    “It’s been a productive meeting and I am glad I came, I have learnt some products that I never knew existed like the Delve and Sway. I really look forward to utilizing this software in enhancing productivity in my workplace, and also to reach out and teach others NGOs. This way, the tech for good initiatives can be embraced.”

     

    Microsoft also unveiled plans which revealed that later in the year, over a hundred Non-profits will be invited to register for the Tech4Good day where even more tools offered by the technology giant will be showcased.

  • Fed Govt urged to review GES to boost farmers’ productivity

    Dry season farmers in Sokoto  State on Tuesday called on the Federal Government to review the Growth Enhancement Support (GES) Scheme to boost farmers’ productivity.

    The scheme, introduced by former President Goodluck Jonathan, relied on the use of mobile phone lines for the distribution of fertiliser, improved seeds and other farm inputs to farmers in the country.

    Under the scheme, agro-dealers were engaged for the distribution of the inputs across the country, while about 10 million GSM lines were registered for the scheme.

    A cross section of the farmers in the state said the scheme was the best ever used in the sale of the inputs at subsidised rate to farmers.

    A farmer at Takakume, Goronyo Local Government Area, Alhaji Ibrahim Adamu, said farmers received text messages directing them to collect the inputs at the nearest distribution point.

    “Registered farmers under the scheme are being allocated three bags of NPK and Urea fertilizer each, improved rice and maize seeds and chemicals at the cost of N9,000,’’ he said.

    Adamu said he was engaged in dry season farming for two decades, adding that a review of the scheme would go a long way to improve crop yield. He stressed the need to encourage more Nigerians to engage in farming activities.

    Another farmer at Falaliya village, Goronyo, Alhaji Hussaini Salisu, called on the government to provide more agricultural support services to farmers. “We are also appealing to the Federal Government to come to our aid by addressing the problem of perennial flooding at the falaliya old irrigation scheme,’’ he added.

    Salisu lamented that the area was renowned for the production of rice, cassava, sweet potatoes, water melon, garlic, sweet and hot pepper, among others.

    Malam Aliyu Chika of Yar-Rimawa fadama, Sokoto, however, called for the construction of more access roads in the fadama users’ areas of the state.