As part of efforts by the Kwara State government to improve the welfare of civil servants in the state, the Head of Service (HoS), Hajia Zahra Omar, has signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) on the disbursement of Home Renovation Loans to all civil servants in the state.

The signing of the MoU took place in the office of the Head of Service (HoS) and was witnessed by the Permanent Secretary, Service Welfare, Mrs. Dupe Oluwole, government lawyer and other principal officers in the office of Head of Service and FMBN officials.

The loan which ranges from N250,000 to N1,000,000 subject to the income limit of the beneficiary as well as the cost of renovation upon an application shall be disbursed to the beneficiaries on the consent and recommendation from the HoS. The repayment of the loan which is for a period of five years will attract 6% interest rate per annum for the duration of the loan and in line with the provision of Financial Regulation.

Application for the loan must be submitted with certified Bill of Quantity (BoQ) indicating the amount required for the renovation while the HoS would ensure the deduction and remittance of the monthly repayments to the Bank.Meanwhile, the Head of service (HoS), Kwara State, Hajia Zahra Omar, held an interactive session with all the administrative officers on Grade Levels 10-15 in the state where she admonished them to justify their pay by adding value to their duties every day.

The interactive session which took place at the Staff Development College (SDC), Ilorin was witnessed by the Permanent Secretary, Service Welfare, Mrs. Dupe Oluwole, Permanent Secretary, Establishment, Alhaji Abubakar Mohammed Bello, Director, Staff Matters Office of Head of service, Elder Sunday Adegboyega Abioye and Director, SDC, Elder, Amos Rotimi among others.

The Head of Service, in the course of her interaction, noted that the economy of the country was dwindling with obvious implications on the Federal allocation to the state thereby necessitating some state governments to embark on downsizing of its workforce but said the state governor, Alhaji AbdulFatah Ahmed still maintained his electoral promise not to downsize.

Hajia Omar said "from the way things are going, it is no longer going to be business as usual for civil servants in the state because there is the need to raise a crop of administrative officers that will move the state forward than ever before".

She added that the interactive session was supposed to measure the input of administrative officers to the administration of the state in terms of value added to the day to day running of administration in the state saying there was no more room for mediocres in the service.

The HoS asked every civil servant in the state to always do something positive in their schedule of duties in order not to move out of relevance noting that it was only productive and innovative officers that become indispensable in the scheme of things.

She said it was necessary for the civil servants to familiarise themselves with all the rules and regulations guiding the service by reading all the service books warning them not to lobby for posting at all.