Abia State Governor, Dr Alex Otti, has directed all Commissioners, heads of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to develop comprehensive training and capacity-building programmes for their respective establishments.
Governor Otti gave the directive in his closing remarks at the end of the Abia State Q2 2025 Executive Council Strategy Retreat, held at the International Conference Centre (ICC), Umuahia.
The Governor emphasized that the directive forms part of his administration’s measures to strengthen the delivery of its mandates and sustain the current momentum in governance.
“One central takeaway from this meeting is the importance of training and mentorship, supporting individuals to become better versions of themselves in order 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”, Gov Otti stated.
He added that critical learning areas such as ICT, Communication, Stakeholder Management and Value Creation should be incorporated in line with the peculiar mandates of each MDA.
According to him, internal resources should be utilised where possible, while external resource persons may be invited to support the process when necessary.
“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,” Governor warned.
The Governor revealed that the State Government would establish an academy to facilitate scheduled training for government employees and announced plans to extend mentorship and capacity-building initiatives to young people in Secondary Schools and Tertiary Institutions across the state.
He directed the Chief Strategy Officer and the Chairman of the Civil Service Commission to work out a suitable template to train 1,000 young people aged 16 to 20 on leadership capacity development, character building and self-discovery, outside the conventional school curriculum.
“The young people’s training should be made to happen between the first week of August and the second week of September, 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 explained.
Governor Otti described the youth as the state’s most important asset, adding that his administration was committed to investing massively in conventional and new frontiers of learning.
The Governor thanked the organisers of the retreat, development partners, consultants, resource persons and members of the Abia State Global Economic Advisory Council for their contributions to the success of the exercise, and reaffirmed his administration’s resolve to deliver on major infrastructure projects across the state.
He urged participants to apply the knowledge gained from the retreat to enhance performance across their respective MDAs and expressed confidence in their capacity to drive excellence in execution within their various establishments.
“I am also confident that you will not let us down, because building a new Abia is our collective project”, he said.
