The Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, has begun a series of capacity enhancement workshops on Blue Ocean Strategy Formulation for its Management staff as a means of equipping them to improve service delivery to the people of the Niger Delta region.
The training programme, which will run for two weeks, was declared open by the NDDC Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Sir (Barr) Bassey Dan-Abia, at the Le Meridian Hotel Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, where he stressed the need for continuous update of knowledge for the staff to enable them play their roles in repositioning the interventionist agency. He said that training and re-training ranked high in the priorities of the current Board and Management of the NDDC, noting that the policy was meant to empower staff with all necessary tools so that they could contribute effectively to the commission’s achievement of its set corporate objectives.
Bassey Dan-Abia said: “The importance of strategic planning in public service organizations like ours cannot be overemphasized because as the saying goes, those that fail to plan; plan to fail. In public service, the goals are not as simple as making profit for the organization; but also include value for money, efficient service delivery, stakeholders’ satisfaction amongst others.”
“We must constantly strive to satisfy our communities and stakeholders, who are our customers. Our success in deploying sustainable development in the Niger Delta lies mainly in our ability to utilize the tools of strategic planning.”
Sir Dan-Abia further said that the capacity enhancement workshop would expose the senior officers of the commission to a new way of thinking on how to increase the value of NDDC through innovative ideas that would meet or exceed the expectations of the various stakeholders. He stated that the Blue Ocean Strategy is a vital tool for the commission as it was operating in an environment where resources were scarce and plans or budgets were under constant scrutiny.
“The Governing Board of NDDC has decided that henceforth every programme and project being embarked upon by the Commission must go through the proper strategic planning process. Management has directed that proponents of new projects/programmes must submit the Concept Notes before such projects or programmes can be included in the NDDC budget,” Dan_Abia said.
The facilitator of the training programme, Mrs Gloria Efemini said that their role would be to stimulate exchange of ideas and inspire original thinking. “We have not come to train you as NDDC staff, our responsibility is to rub minds with you, share ideas and explore ways of thinking outside the box, which will help you to bring out what you already know or have within you.
