Kwara state Deputy Governor Elder Peter Kisra cutting the tape to commission the school, while the Secretary to the state government, Alhaji Isiaka Gold and some traditional rulers watched with interest. Newly established Goshen International Business School has expressed its intention to train Kwara State civil servants.

he training, if consummated, will be in the areas of human capital development, transformation of the state civil service through our training programmes, socio-economic research, environmental Conservation activities; partnering with state government in its economic transformation programme and social awakening of the citizens of the state.

Others are offering genuine advice to the state government on its socio-economic activities and advice on security to the state government, the Chairman, Governing Council of the school, Bayo Atoyebi has said.

Mr. Atoyebi, a lawyer, said this at the commissioning of the school in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital. He added that "it is with this in mind that the school's management has taken a decision to partner the state government to help develop the civil service by way of bringing the civil servants up to date in terms of the required knowledge to translate government policies into economic development.

"We intend to contribute to the extension of the frontier of knowledge of the civil servants in terms of Management training in key areas. This we hope would empower them to effectively transform and translate the state's economic policies into real development to the benefit of all." He said that a well equipped civil service will facilitate rapid economic transformation efforts of the government.

The governing council chair stated that no amount of salary paid to civil servants could make them as effective as the knowledge of economic transformation/policies that "we are ready to provide not only for this state but for the states around Kwara in the first two years of our operation in Ilorin."

Said he: "It becomes imperative here to highlight the strategic importance of the state as the gateway between the southern and northern parts of the country. It is also one of the middle-belt states which make it accessible to the two divides of the northern and southern states of the federation.

"Its accessibility is not in doubt considering the avalanche of routes open to would-be visitors and tourists to the state. The state is accessible by Rail through the main trunk from Lagos to Kano, it is a nodal city considering the road transport, it can be accessed through the International Airport situated in the Capital City, Ilorin which also host an Aviation College. There is no gainsaying the fact that Ilorin presents the best location ever possible to site the school, and which we have done.

Equally important is the fact that the proponents of the school are stakeholders in the state who are willing to contribute to the socio-economic development of the state.

"We therefore appeal to His Excellency to consider this school as one of your achievements in the state during your tenure particularly when measured against the huge potentials it has, to help build a solid human capital base for the state.

We offer to train the entire civil service staff in batches at a discounted rate as part of the school's contribution to the state government.

"We wish to appeal to you to avail this school the opportunity to train the entire civil servants of the state in phases such that in a spate of one-year, the bulk of the service would have been translated from mere 'worker' to human capital - an essential ingredient for accelerated socio-economic development of the state."

He said that the school has designed retreat/Workshop for state executive council members; retreat/Workshop for members of the House of Assembly; facilitating local and overseas training for senior civil servants; skill acquisition for all categories of civil servants.

ommissioning the project, Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed represented by his deputy Peter Kisra said that his administration would not allow the current financial challenges in the country affect the training of its civil servants.

He added that the school is in a position to contribute to the economic activities in the state as its students and faculty would patronize business across the state.

Governor Ahmed said: ""I find it remarkable that Goshen Business School is focusing on strategic areas that are of priority interest to my administration of particular interest are human capital development, Training of civil servants, environmental conservation and security. I assure you that the state government stands ready to collaborate with you in these and other areas of mutual interest to uplift our state and create a better life for our people.

"We are particularly interested in human capital development especially through the expansion to access to quality health and provision of functional education. In line with this commitment, this administration intends to extend our hospital remodeling project to an additional five general hospitals in the state in our quest to ensure that more of our people can access affordable quality health care wherever the live in the state.

"The establishment of additional comprehensive and primary health care centres will also complement our efforts in this key sector. Additional, we will boost educational reforms and ensure that our youths receive functional education that will prepare them for entrepreneurship and instead of searching for increasing competitive and shrinking positions in the public and private sector.