Service delivery: FCTA empowers staff with ICT skills

To bolster staff capacity to effectively discharge their duties, the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) through its department of Human Resource Management (HRM) has conducted an in-house training of no fewer than 25 administrative staffers on basic knowledge of computer.
Speaking on the significance of the training at the FCT Information and Communication Technology (ICT) training hall in Area 11, Garki, Assistant Director, Manpower Development, Mr. Rotimi Ajayi said it was necessary to further build staff capacity to do their tasks better.
Ajayi who was represented by Head of ICT in the Transportation Secretariat, Mr. Ernest Ajorgbor explainedhis programme is designed for the administrative staff in order to get them introduced to the latest skills of the Microsoft packages and to let them understand the essence of the computer.
“The first day, we had computer appreciation programme, where we taught them on how to use the computer. Some of them did not even know how to put it on and off before; while others had little computer skills and could do something without actually knowing what they were doing.
“Some of them are so skillful using their phones, which has android application packages similar to the new computer packages we are introducing them to. So we are trying to migrate those skills they have about the mobile phones to the computer, and they are making a lot of progress.
“It is an in-house training to abreast the staff with the new skills because most of these new application packages are been introduced on a yearly basis so there is need for us to train and retrain the workforce on the skills, and the FCTA, in this trial stage, is training 25 of them,” he said.
Ajayi explained that the FCT Administration would have loved to do that but the paucity of funds wouldn’t allow that to happen, at least not now; expressing hope that with improved financial capability, the Administration could look into that.
He added that such laudable initiatives were brought up due to the FCT Minister’s prudent financial management.
Noting the high percentage of computer literacy among the FCTA staff, Ajayi however said about 37 percent of the staff were not computer literate, even as he revealed that the training would also eliminate time wastage in treatment of files due to lack of secretaries within the system as certain officials would be able to type their memos themselves.
Some of the beneficiaries interviewed expressed delight and gratitude to the Administration for giving them the opportunity to have the latest skills in computer, calling on the management to extend the same to their colleagues.
A trainee, Ayam Stephen Mario said: “the training has gone a long way in helping us improve in the discharge of our responsibilities in our various offices. There are certain things we did not know before, but now we know them.
”For instance, I have typed, printed and done a few other things on the computer before, but I have just known how to create a folder and save in it during this training and this will make me manage files better.
“I have also learnt that within a folder, I can create many folders, so it is a good thing for us to be here.”
Ayam, who works with the discipline unit of the Human Resource Management department, however appealed to the Administration to give them personal computers to enable them improve faster and master the skills.
Similarly, another beneficiary, Ofuna Thomas also said that the experience was very helpful to them.
Ofuna who also thanked the FCTA management for the training, asked for more, both for him and other staff.
According to him, “work in the registry and we are supposed to have all files documented so that anytime we are looking for a file, we will not only go to the in-coming and out-going registers, but we can also do that with the use of a computer.
“The knowledge we are gaining here can help us use the computer to know not just location of a file but the date it came in and went out, including which officer is handling it.”