Kogi Declares Workers’ Welfare, Training As Priorities

Kogi State government has promised to continue to prioritise workers’ training and promotion to enhance their productivity and move the state forward.

The special adviser to the Governor on Revenue Generation, Dr Nasir Rahman Ichanyi, stated this on Saturday at the Kogi State Polytechnic, Lokoja, during the promotion examination organised by the Kogi State Internal Revenue Service for its personnel.

Ichanyi said training and promotion of workers in any organisation or governmental system are non-negotiable, noting that, as part of an effort to motivate workers, the state government will continue to ensure that workers are promoted as due.

“The KGIRS is an agency that generates revenue, which the state government is using for its developmental strides and for the service to do more. The staff need to be motivated, and one of the motivational factors is promotion, because if a staff member is due for promotion and is not promoted, that staff member cannot put in their best.

“That is why Governor Ahmed Usman Ododo is interested in this exercise and the executive chairman of the service, Dr Salihu Sule Enehe, is also interested in seeing the staff being promoted whenever they are due,” he stated.

Speaking on the exercise, the Special Adviser expressed satisfaction with the arrangement and assured that there is always room for improvement, stressing that “there is no process that is 100 percent perfect”.

“This exercise will enable the staff to do their best on the job because when you are promoted to another rank, it means more responsibility, which is good for the Service”, he added.

He urged the management of the KGIRS to always carry their staff along to enable them to claim ownership of the Service and enhance revenue generation.

In his remarks, the director of administration and ICT, KGIRS Alex Akande, disclosed that 340 staff of the Service sat for the promotion examination to qualify for another rank in the organisation.

He described the exercise as one of the three stages in the Service’s promotion process, listing them as: examination stage, oral stage, and appraisal stage.

“The exercise today is the examination stage, which we are conducting for the eligible staff of the service. 340 qualified staff members who are due for promotion are here for the examination exercise.

“The promotion will encourage the staff to put more effort into learning because, on a yearly basis, we conduct promotion examinations for those staff who are eligible”, he said.

Earlier, the consultant to KGIRS on promotion and training,

Professor John Alabi, in his remarks, said the exercise is a promotion examination for four categories of staff: managers, revenue officers, drivers, and cameramen.

Alabi pointed out that the examination is to determine whether a staff member will move to the next level or not, saying as a manager, “if you spent two or three years on a particular level, you need to move higher in the job”.

KGIRS is a proactive organisation in the state that prioritises staff welfare. We have been conducting promotional activities for the service for the past 5 years without a blemish. The one will also go the same way.

“There are three categories of grading: the filling of the Application for Personnel Action (APPA) form, the written examination and the oral interview. All of these carried their percentages,” Prof Alabi explained.