Kashim Akor
Presenting a paper titled ‘Post-COVID-19 Nigerian Economy: The Productivity Imperatives’ at the inauguration of the National Labour Advisory Council (NLAC) in Owerri, the Imo State capital, Akor explained that coronavirus had inflicted monumental economic and social challenges on the world, and requires innovativeness and craftiness of economic managers to avert economic implosion of countries.
The NPC helmsman said a green productivity approach is an idea that is suitable for economic growth and sustainable development for Nigeria given the desire to grow her non-oil sector as a matter of necessity.
Green Productivity was launched in 1994 in line with the 1992 Earth Summit recommendations that both economic development and environmental protection would be key strategies for sustainable development.
Green Productivity is a new paradigm in sustainable manufacturing where resource conservation and waste minimization constitute the strategy in simultaneously enhancing environmental performance and productivity.
His explanation: “The knowledge and practice of green productivity are therefore very crucial to the diversification drive of the Nigerian government. The basic characteristics of green productivity include environmental compliance by the production system, application of environment-friendly production management system, use of total quality management and continuous improvement techniques as well.”
Akor stressed that the need for productivity movement and economic diversification should be a top government agenda, saying, “productivity imperatives provide a promising future for Nigeria with a knowledge-based economy. As bad as the COVID-19 has been, it is a wake-up call that has challenged us as a people to look closely at agriculture and the manufacturing industry to reduce the total dependence on other countries for all our needs, technology inclusive. The new world order is fast emerging. The way we see the world, work, and interact has changed and Nigeria must not be left behind in the new scheme of things. The current reality and challenges are consequently redefining the way things are done across the globe thereby ushering in the new world order.”
Though the concept of productivity has evolved through time and remains the same irrespective of the type of production, economic or political systems, Akor maintained that the basic concept remains the relationship between output and inputs.
He added: “As a social concept, productivity is seen as an attitude of mind that seeks to continuously improve what already exists. It is based on the conviction that one can do things better today than yesterday and better tomorrow than today. It is a mindset that seeks to continually improve what already exists. It is the will to improve on the present situation, no matter how good it may seem. It aims for a better quality of life for everyone, hence, it is everybody’s business.
As a management concept, productivity improvement is a managed process. It does not happen by accident. A productive organization is efficient in converting the inputs to outputs (products/services) and effective in fulfilling its mission of satisfying expectations of customers and other stakeholders.”
He further stated that as an integrated concept, productivity is the efficiency and effectiveness with which input resources are combined and utilized in an environmentally and socially sustainable manner to produce quality goods and services for the satisfaction of human needs. This is a definition that holistically looks at productivity with keen attention to green productivity and quality in appreciating total productivity.
