HOS Urges Civil Servants To Embrace Agriculture

The Head of Civil Service of the Federation, Dr. Folasade Yemi-Esan, has charged civil servants to embrace agriculture in line with the Renewed Hope Agenda of the President Bola Tinubu-led administration aimed at boosting agriculture to achieve food security.

Yemi-Esan stated this on the occasion of the symbolic presentation of cheques to beneficiaries of Bank of Agriculture credit facility under the Agriprenuership Training Scheme in Abuja on Thursday.

She said the Agriprenuership Scheme for civil servants was conceived in line with the sixth pillar of the Federal Civil Service Strategy and Implementation Plan 2021 to 2025 (FCCIP25) which focuses specifically on value proposition as a veritable instrument to enhance the welfare and well-being of civil servants for high impact performance.

The Head of Service explained that the Programme creates a window for those in service to earn supplementary income to improve their quality of life, as well as enable those retiring to cope with life after service while at the same time contributing to the development of the other sectors of the economy, and by implication, increasing the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the country.

“It is worthy of note that the programme was packaged based on a tripartite arrangement involving the Office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation, the Public Service Institute of Nigeria (PSIN) and the Bank of Agriculture with their roles and responsibilities clearly spelt out in the Memorandum of Understanding for effective implementation of the scheme.

“In this light, the Office of the Head of Service coordinates the Programme, PSIN handles the theoretical components while the Bank of Agriculture provides credit facility to eligible participants at the end of training for business startup,” he said.