18th October, 2014
The annual retreat of Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) and Heads of Agencies in Lagos state opened yesterday in Lagos as the deputy governor of the state, Hon. Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire challenged the CEOs to continue to collaborate and share ideas among themselves to achieve the common goal of improving the lives of Lagosians and make the city of Lagos the premium destination for investment and leisure.
In a statement by Tunde Abatan, Special Assistant (Media) to the Deputy Governor, Adefulire while declaring open the retreat noted that the programme provides a platform for the heads and top management of agencies of the state government to review the activities of their respective organisations, exchange ideas and interact among themselves with a view to improving on the services being rendered by each of the agencies for the benefit of the state and its inhabitants.
Speaking on the theme of this year’s programme, ‘Capacity building synergy and effective public governance’, Hon. Adefulire noted that the theme captures the very essence why the state government has recorded its modest achievements, which she traced to the effectiveness and efficiency of the state workforce occasioned by periodic training and re-training and capacity development.
“Our achievement as the representative of the people could not have been possible without the support and collaboration of our effective workforce, most of whom you supervise as CEOs. Our government places premium on the value of our workers and we spare no cost in ensuring their up-to-date knowledge, training and development as well as improved welfare to ensure they are first among equals in public service in the country, one of such platform for capacity development is the annual retreat of CEOs which we are opening today”, Adefulire stated.
She enjoined the CEOs to continue to be dependable partners in implementing the policies of the present administration noting that much more need to be done to bring Lagos at par with other mega cities of the world as well as achieving the targeted Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which she noted, remains the minimum standard of measuring developed cities all over the world.
Earlier in his welcome address, the Special Adviser to the Governor on Parastatals Monitoring, Prince Gboyega Adebayo-Salvador said the yearly retreat of the Chief Executives and Heads of Agencies provides an avenue for free exchange of ideas, trustful comments as well as proffering solutions to some of the problems confronting different agencies in the discharge of their duties.
The Special Adviser added that the enormous responsibilities placed on the shoulders of the CEOs as heads of strategic government agencies requires a forum such as the retreat to critically evaluate individual agencies, measure their progress, identify challenges and chart a common cause towards achieving set goals and delivering the 10-point agenda of the Babatunde Fashola administration.
He admonished the CEOs to take urgent steps towards speedy completion of projects within their purview, noting that as the present administration winds down, the need to deliver on all outstanding projects is germane to how the success of the present administration will be measured at the end of its tenure.
The 3-day retreat holding in Lekki, Lagos is being attended by Chief Executives and Heads of over 100 agencies, parastatals and departments of government and experience faculties and public administrators are expected to make paper presentations.