In this media parley, Dr Kabir Kabo Usman is the Director General, Centre for Management Development, speaks on the activities of the centre and how it is blending with the present socio-economic and political realities. ABDULRAHMAN A. ABDULRAUF reports
On restructuring and hate speeches At the Centre for Management Development, CMD, we know what is happening in the country (now) in terms of issues about restructuring, hate speech, insecurity and others. Th erefore it is an important responsibility for the CMD to ensure that our training programmes that are devised by management (training and development) institutions as well as consultants and private training organisations take these at the front burner. It is fundamental. Th e CMD is also doing very well in terms of awareness education.
In our training programmes we incorporate ethical code of practice, how to tackle corruption and minimise wastage. With regards to the much-talked about “restructuring”, we are looking at it to ensure that in our 2018 programmes, we incorporate modules on issues about unity of purpose to make sure that we have a nation not just a country.
We are promoting programmes on those areas to build capacity on tolerance, respect and understanding among us. Going back to history and when we refl ect, in the early 1970s, there were discussions on the need for management education in Nigeria for us to move forward. Consequent upon those discussions, advocacy groups put their heads together and in 1973 the Centre for Management Development was born for two reasons.
One, we all know what happened during the Civil War from 1967 to 1970 and we know the colonial masters came and left with a huge gap in terms of skilled manpower. So for that reason, the CMD came into being to remedy the skills gap and skills shortages. Birth of CMD In 1976, the CMD was anchored by a legislation of the National Council for Management Development.
Th e responsibilities of the Council were advisory to the Ministers of Budget Dr. Kabir See next page Interview In this media parley, Dr Kabir Kabo Usman is the Director General, Centre for Management Development, speaks on the activities of the centre and how it is blending with the present socio-economic and political realities. ABDULRAHMAN A. ABDULRAUF reports It is all about infrastructure, diversifi cation of the economy, getting the right micro-economic framework and also ensuring that there is prudence, frugality, transparency and accountability… and National Planning in areas of policies, planning and programmes so that we can utilise the pre-requisite managerial manpower to ensure economic development in Nigeria.
Th e Council was also saddled with the responsibility of formulating policies. Policies are important to guidelines and directions to management education. Level of interfacing Th e Council interfaces with Universities and Training Consultants both public and private to ensure that there is coherence in manpower development training in the country. Th e Council also focuses on areas of promoting high national standard for management education.
We are also developing e n t r e p r e n e u r s h i p , leadership and managerial skills and particularly, under the current dispensation where there is emphasis on infrastructure which simply means there is need for skilled manpower to develop areas of infrastructure like power, value chain in agriculture, transportation, construction and economic development. Impact of the agency an average Nigerian Surprisingly, a research conducted by CMD gave birth to the Small and Medium Enterprise Development Agency (SMEDAN) and similar other government agencies. Th is is important in considering the role of the National Council for Management Development and the Council is directed (empowered by law) to ensure that there is a register and a database and the register is maintained on regular basis in terms of training programmes conducted in the country and the location where the programmes are being conducted, the standard, duration and cost of such programmes.
Th is is a classical mandate for the CMD and this makes it (the CMD) regulatory not operational. To elaborate further, we at the CMD have a responsibility to assess as to whether the management development institutions are doing what they are expected to do. Th at is what we do in areas of quality assurance and inspection. We do this quality assurance for quality development and quality control.
Th is is the responsibility of the Centre. We are also directed to ensure that there are regular inputs by bringing the public and private sectors to come together and discuss areas of common interests and ideas in terms of trends of current capacity building in the country with a view to do a NEEDS assessment survey and proper solutions in areas where we have shortages of skilled manpower. Extent and level of researches by the agency In our eff orts to further discharge our mandate of supporting the Council, the CMD conduct research into all aspects of management education and allied matters so that the situation is understood better and fi nd out areas that have to be addressed – where there are shortages in skilled manpower and proff er solutions to both the public and private sectors.
Our vision is to see the CMD become a centre of excellence in promoting management education and we are here to provide quality education. Insight into management development institutions Let us refl ect on management development institutions in Nigeria and you will see that there are four diff erent types and all of them can be compartmentalized. One is an operational management development institution that provides training programmes on areas like policies and also conducts researches such as the Federal Public Service Institute, ASCON and NIPSS. Th ere is also an organisation that funds management education in areas of technical and vocational skills that is the Industrial Training Fund (ITF).
Th e third one is a regulatory body and that function in terms of managerial manpower in Nigeria is done by the CMD. Th e last one is those responsible for advocacy about professionalism like the Nigerian Institute of Management (NIM) In the case of the functions of the CMD, we support and monitor the delivery of high quality training programmes. And to achieve that, we must accredit and this is where I want to announce that we have been provided with adequate funds to go round the country and accredit manpower management consultants, manpower management training institutes and manpower management training consultancy fi rms across the country. And this activity will commence next week. So you may see me with Police going round some manpower training institutions to check the quality and standard of their operations.
I do not have to mention why such will have happen. We all know we still have challenges with quack manpower management consultants all over the country and it is our duty to check everybody and ensure that there is compliance with quality and standard. I am also glad to say that we have the support of the Offi ce of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation and the Secretary of the Government of the Federation that any government institution that plans promotion examination must liaise with only three bodies that are recognised, and the CMD is one of them to regulate quality and standard of what will happen and to ensure accountability and transparency. What would you describe as the Centre’s achievements under your leadership? Th ree quarters of 2017 has gone and I believe we have done much and achieved a lot.
We trained over three thousand manpower and development managers in management education with particular emphasis on leadership, strategic management, project management, resultbased monitoring and evaluation framework as well as on issues about emotional intelligence. We also trained many management consultants to ensure there is an ethical code of practice and ensure they are doing what they are supposed to do and being guided ethically and likewise they are competent to analyse and identify areas of skills gaps. We have also visited all the 36 States and the FCT and conducted training NEEDS assessment of planning, research and statistics across the federation.
We have produced an interim report and we are now analysing the data to produce a fi nal report. Th at report will be sent to all the state governors to show them the analyses on capacity gaps in their states and the areas they need to address and we will proff er solutions on how that could easily be addressed. We have also produced a brochure of a about 120 programmes and it also serves a direction and guide to all management consultants.
Th ey can visit the CMD website to download the relevant training programmes they need, domesticate, customise and use them because that is what the country wants. What role can the agency play in a postrecession Nigeria? We have areas that need to prioritise particularly now that Nigeria is on the way out of recession which is as a result of the National Economic Recovery and Growth plan by the government. It simply means there is going to be role for each and every one of us.
Th e roles of the private and public sectors are all encapsulated in the plan. It is all about infrastructure, diversifi cation of the economy, getting the right micro-economic framework and also ensuring that there is prudence, frugality, transparency and accountability. So if we have a plan of this nature which the Minister of Budget and National Planning, Senator Udo Udoma, presented and accepted and approved by the President and as a result we are witnessing that we are getting out of recession, so cannot just go and deliver these plans without skilled manpower. So the capacity is very important.
Th at is why we said we must make sure we look at that document back to front and understand where there is need to build the capacity of manpower so that we can deliver the dividends of democracy in that respect. On economic diversifi cation I must say that the plan is very important. We all know about the diversifi cation of the economy and the focus is on agriculture and its value chain, issues about energy and issues about industrialisation and small and medium enterprises.
It is important for us as a country to restore our economic growth. Th erefore, we need to make some training programmes to raise the capacity in terms of restoring economic growth and also we have to have a competitive economy because we are not existing in isolation, we are integral part of the world and we have to invest in people. We have to have a knowledge-based economy.
We cannot deliver the plans except and unless we invest in people and have a skilled manpower. Th is is important and the reason we have to interact with many other consultants to give them directions in terms of the programmes that are needed for the interest of the country.
Th e CMD also did many consultancy services this year. Just last week, we were at Yankari Games Reserve Resort in Bauchi state and conducted a retreat for all Commissioners and Permanent Secretaries of Gombe state. We looked at the system of Budgeting, the concept of zero-based budgeting, result-based monitoring and evaluation framework and areas on how we can tackle corruption.
We also studied areas on how we can minimize leakage and wastage. Th is kind of package at the training programme is what we recommended at the retreat that every state should have as a blueprint because it can help them cut down the cost of governance and provide quality service. We also made a signifi cant progress in the private sector too. We had trainings in terms of trainthe-trainer to develop the skills of those responsible for trainings in their agencies. We had trainings in the NNPC. We are going to NLNG in Bonny Island.
Th ey will provide special fl ight for us to go and train their staff because they believe we have the capacity to deliver. We forge links with many other management consultants in the public and private sector so that we can share ideas and make sure that we provide the guidance and direction to ensure there is quality in delivery of manpower in the country. Th e Minister has been extremely supportive. He has given us some appropriations to tackle issues about the national manpower development plan.
Th is issue has been lingering for long in this country. We are still having challenges. If we know how many engineers we have, how many doctors we have, how many nurses we need, how many accountants do we actually need, it is very diffi cult to get that answer. But with the research we are going to conduct, it will give us an idea about our needs. Failure to plan is planning to fail but you cannot plan without data. Generating revenue and collaboration We are also working very hard not just to rely on government but to generate internal revenue through diversifi cation of our programmes in the areas of consultancy and by partnering with agencies so that we can collaborate to achieve the set objectives.
We are looking at the possibility of working with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) and also with the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) so that we can train their staff and they (NTA) advertise our programmes and services a sort of trade by barter.
