Institute of Procurement, Environmental and Social Standards (IPESS) has graduated over 280 participants in Procurement, Environmental and Social Standards, calling on them to be agents of change wherever they find themselves. The call was made by the Monitoring and Evaluation officer, Prof. Simon Shomkegh, while delivering his keynote address at the graduation ceremony of participants on Friday at the Staff Development Centre, Makurdi.
In his keynote address titled “Agents of Change”, Prof Shomkegh, who was represented by Mr Daniel Laka, admonished participants to be drivers of change wherever they find themselves and to be professional in handling their jobs. He encouraged them, as they returned to their various offices, to transfer the knowledge and skills they had acquired during their studies, urging them to be bold, courageous, and to put into practice what they have learned from the training and share the knowledge and experience they have gained so far.
In his welcome address, Dr John Onah, the Project Management Officer, welcomed participants to their graduation, stating that the last 3 weeks were effective. He noted that it was an opportunity for civil servants to learn how to conduct themselves, urging them to take advantage of the other programmes available at the institute up to PhD level.
Speaking with newsmen, Dr Onah disclosed that participants were drawn from Government Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs). He disclosed that the project trains both public and private servants in advanced and certificate courses, short-term courses, postgraduate diploma, masters, and bachelor degrees.
In his goodwill message, the DG of Benue State Education Quality Assurance, Dr Terna Francis, who was also a graduating participant, acknowledged that the course was quality-assured, assuring that he would take the message to the Governor that it should be mandatory for appointees to go through the course upon appointment.
In his valedictory speech, the class governor of Environmental Standards, Kingsley Obinna, on behalf of the class, appreciated IPESS and the World Bank for the sponsorship. He stated that, they have learned best practices on waste management, adding that they were graduating as change agents and expressed optimism that the training has added value and purpose to them. On behalf of Procurement participants, the class governor, Dr Maureen Anja, said that the training was a call to higher standards and to be change agents in their various environments.
Institute for Procurement, Environmental and Social Standards is funded by the World Bank for the next 4 years under the Sustainable Procurement, Environmental and Social Standards Enhancement (SPESSE) project. The SPESSE project is aimed at enhancing sustainable human capacity development in Procurement, Environmental and Social Standards in public and private sectors in Nigeria and the West African sub-region. So far, IPESS has trained over 16,000 participants since its inception.
