The Federal Government has restated its objection to state governments reducing the number of workdays, arguing that it would be unwise for a country like Nigeria to do so.
The Director general of the National Productivity Centre (NPC), Dr Nasir Mustapha, made this statement at the Management Training on Performance Management Systems and Productivity and Quality Improvement Tools and Techniques that the Centre organised in Keffi, Nasarawa State.
Mustapha contended that cutting number of workdays is not at all innovative because there was a need for suitable infrastructure to allow employees to work from home.
He said: “The truth is that work now is beyond physical work. Going to the office everyday to do your work. You can work even when you are at home but there are issues around that in Nigeria.
“For us in this country, you need to have enough infrastructure to be able to work from home. So, reducing the number of days of work is not creative at all for a country like Nigeria. To reduce the number of days your workers will work, you should give them the facilities, the infrastructure that would enable them to work online.
“All over the world now, people are canvassing for less physical work places. You can work from any place. The most important thing is to meet up your target when a target is set for you.
As a result, the DG encouraged governors to set up infrastructure that would make it easier for employees to go to their places of employment for the allotted amount of time under the ILO convention.
“So, I would advise that the best thing for the governors to do, is to provide facilities that would enable these workers to get to their workplaces for the period of time as allowed by the ILO convention that workers should work for minimum of eight hours everyday from Monday to Friday, but, if they want to give some days off for their workers, they should provide the necessary facilities that would enable them to work outside their workplace.”
Speaking further, Mustapha, explained that the Seven-day training was to equip participants with the knowledge to enable organisations maximize the recently announced palliative funds promised the Business Community by President Bola Tinubu.
He added that the workshop was also intended to expose participants to the implementation strategies of the Performance Management Systems which are being introduced into the service.
“Expect us to deploy a lot of our consultants out there to assist ailing businesses to turn around their performances. We have the capacity and we are trying to continue to enhance the capacity of our consultants, to train more consultants in this area because that is the only thing that can turn around any business.
“Capital is very important, funds are very important but the only thing that can lead to enhanced productivity and competitiveness, is this requisite knowledge and skill that can help you turn around these companies.” He noted.