Abia State government has announced that it will establish a Public Service Academy in the state soon.
The academy, Governor Alex Otti declared, will facilitate schedule training for government employees.
Speaking at the closing ceremony of the 2025 Abia State Quarter 2 Executive Council Strategy Retreat held in Umuahia, Otti announced his administration’s plans to extend mentorship and capacity-building initiatives to young people in secondary and tertiary institutions across the state.
He said, “The young people’s training should be made to happen between the first week of August and the second week of September. And this is when the students are expected to be on vacation.
“They should also be institutionalised, conducted periodically and properly certificated.
“The programme should be structured to transform the minds of the young leaders, expose them to new thinking and prepare them for the tasks of leadership and service in communities in due course”.
He therefore directed the appointees of state government and heads of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to develop robust training and capacity building programmes for their establishments.
On the training of 1,000 youths between the ages 16 to 20, Otti also directed the Chief Strategy Officer of the government and the Chairman of the Civil Service Commission to work out a template for the training.
The training, he said, should be on leadership capacity development, character building and self-discovery outside the academic environment.
According to him, one central takeaway from the retreat is the importance of training and mentorship which supports individuals to become better versions of themselves, so as to become better employees and subordinates.
“To that effect, all commissioners and heads of MDAs are directed to develop robust training and capacity building programmes for their establishments.
“Critical learning areas such as ICT, communication, stakeholder management and value creation in line with the peculiar mandates of the individuals and MDAs should be incorporated.
“Nobody should be left behind and any staff who fails to participate should be reprimanded.
“Clear metrics of assessment are to be developed and outcomes used as part of the relevant criteria for assigning official responsibilities. I expect to get periodic reports on this from various MDAs”, the governor said.
He therefore appreciated the consultants and resource persons who anchored the various sessions of the retreat, particularly, the leadership and members of the Abia Global Economic Advisory Council, even as he equally thanked its organisers.
According to him, the participants should apply the knowledge gained from the retreat to improve on their performances, stressing that knowledge is nothing until it is applied to achieve superior outcomes.
The retreat came to a close with the participants expressing satisfaction with the quality of the lectures, describing them as windows towards Abia’s economic development.
