Smart city requires smart manpower, says Ambode

Governor of Lagos State, Akinwunmi Ambode says training and retraining of the workforce is part of the strategies by his administration to actualise the state’s quest of transiting from a mega city to a smart city.

Ambode stated this at a two-day training organised for select civil servants in the state during which he challenged them to key into the trainings.

Represented by Benson Oke, the state commissioner for establishments, training and pensions, the governor noted that the transition to the smart city and its sustenance would be a lot difficult unless the civil servants embraced the trainings and applied them.

He said there was the need to equip civil servants with the required skills to catapult the state.

The governor stressed that the workforce must be well equipped and knowledgeable enough to deliver the best of service of the public. He also charged them to innovate in order to make government services more customer-centric.

“The Lagos State civil service must be savvy in its hiring processes and decisions. Indeed, many people enter public service because they have a deep desire to make their community a better place. However, desire and skill do not necessarily go hand-in-hand. The decision makers can set their agencies or organisations up for success from the very beginning by hiring the right people for the right jobs at the right time,” he said.

Oluwatoyin Ogundipe, the vice chancellor of University of Lagos, who facilitated at the training session, said it was only through such trainings that civil servants would help to drive the smart city.