Productivity key to economic growth – NPC DG

Director-General of National Productivity Centre (NPC) Dr. Kashim Akor, in this interview, says the centre is poised to ensure that Nigeria inculcates the culture of productivity for improvement in the living standard of the citizenry stressing that for any country that desires growth, productivity plays a pivotal role.   What would you say is the […]

Director-General of National Productivity Centre (NPC) Dr. Kashim Akor, in this interview, says the centre is poised to ensure that Nigeria inculcates the culture of productivity for improvement in the living standard of the citizenry stressing that for any country that desires growth, productivity plays a pivotal role.

 

What would you say is the impact of the NPC vis-à-vis the reason for its establishment by the federal government?

For any nation that desires growth and development, productivity is critical because productivity has to do with how well, efficient and how effective you can manage your resources to get results.

So, for any nation to grow, you must be able to effectively and efficiently manage your resources. Above all, in a knowledge-based economy, where the issue is not that of the quantity of the raw materials we have, but how you can utilize the little you have through innovation and creativity, it is important for productivity to be given pride of place.

It is against this backdrop that the federal government of Nigeria felt that there should be an institutional framework that will channel all creative energies towards the stimulation and promotion of productivity consciousness in Nigeria. It is important that at all times, people should be able to think of ways of improving whatever they do.

So, the National Productivity Centre was therefore established by an Act of Parliament 70 with the sole mandate of articulating programmes and policies that stimulate productivity consciousness, promote productivity across all sectors of the economy, monitor productivity trends and lead the productivity movement in Nigeria towards ensuring the growth and development of our economy.

When there is development of the economy, there is growth; there will be enhanced standard of living of the citizenry.

What synergy is the NPC pursuing to further aid it achieve its mandate?

We have been able to achieve our mandate by putting in place a lot of result-oriented programmes that would positively intervene in jump-starting and promoting productivity at various sectoral levels. For example, we brought about productivity sensitization, productivity promotion, and advocacy. Productivity has to do with the mind; the mind seeks continuous improvement.

It is important that people are reminded and sensitized towards the critical relevance of productivity. To do this, we have put in place sensitization programmes. We went down to the secondary schools, a way of catching the youths young, so, we introduced what we called ‘Productivity Coaching and Mentoring’ using the instrumentality of productivity clubs, quiz, debate and inter-school competitions for the youths to imbibe the culture of productivity early in their lives.

We also have a programme we call ‘Productivity and Quality Improvement Programme’, the whole essence of this programme is for it to act as an interventionist at organizations, particularly SMEs, to study their productivity programmes through what we call ‘Organizational Diagnosis’ and then we fund productivity council and quality teams which are made of staff of the centre and staff of those companies.

We look at organisations with our expertise, then we proffer solutions and we implement those solutions. The obvious results after our intervention are increased profitability, increase in terms of job satisfaction by workers, increase in output and above all, a high contribution to the GDP of the economy.

Again, we put in the Productivity Measurement Scheme to assess productivity at various sectors in order to advise government for planning purposes, and investors to guide decision making.

Also, we have put in place a reward system. The essence of that reward system, National Productivity Order and Merit Award, is to recognize and reward excellence, such that will motivate and encourage Nigerians to higher productivity.

We have put the scheme in such a way for people to be gingered towards competing to be honoured. By the time they compete to be honoured in terms of improving their productivity, they are contributing to improvement to the nation’s GDP.

The NPC has positively intervened in growing the economy of the nation, as a matter of fact, NPC is a catalyst for economic growth. We assist organisations and businesses concerned to grow their productivity through our various productivity improvement programmes.

What role has the NPC played in curbing poverty and unemployment in the country?

The National Productivity Centre is critical to the government’s effort in curbing poverty in the country. One of the critical things NPC does is to create wealth. NPC is engaged in building the skills and competences of workers. We build the capacity of the workforce such that they can efficiently and effectively manage their resources. When resources are well managed, when wastages are curbed, you’ll see that the money that would have been frittered away will be saved and used to create jobs.

When you curb wastages you provide enough wealth and that wealth can be used to create jobs; when jobs are created and people are employed, you are taking people out of poverty. When wealth is created, you now enhance the capacities of the various sectors – the health sector, educational, transport.

By the time these sectors are enhanced, you find out that there is an improvement in the standard of living of the people. We look at the NPC capacity building programme as a strategic objective that has been relevant in alleviating poverty in the country.