Foundation Invests $20m in Infrastructure, Donates CBT Centre

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has contributed about $20 million to infrastructure development in Nigeria, and has gone ahead to provide an 80-seat capacity Computer Based Test (CBT) centre to promote e-governance through ICT. Head of the federal civil service of Nigeria, Mrs. Winifred Oyo-Ita, disclosed this during the unveiling of the centre at the Public Service Institute of Nigeria (PSIN) in Abuja recently.

Oyo-Ita said the contribution of the Foundation was expected to develop modules for various training programmes of public officers on leadership development, information and communication technology, entrepreneurship development and public-private partnership.

The centre, which is expected to host about 200 candidates at once, and which was donated by the African Capacity Building Foundation under the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Africa Capacity Building Grant, will also be involved in monitoring and evaluation, as well as capacity building of staff members in identified need areas. Oyo-Ita said: “The Foundation, which has made a huge investment of about $20 million so far in Nigeria, is expected to sponsor the development of the first strategic plan of the institute, and is also funding the development of process and procedures of the Institute; monitoring and evaluation, as well as capacity building of staff in identified need areas. “This is one of the projects ACBF is funding in the institute. Building the capacity of the Public Service Institute of Nigeria will go a long way to help in the actualisation of the strategic plan of the office of the Head of Service of the federation; being one of the capacity building arm.

“It is expected to develop modules for various training programmes of public officers in the areas of leadership development, information and communication technology, entrepreneurship development and public-private partnership

“Repositioning PSIN is tantamount to building capacity of public servants, and being one of the premier capacity building institutions in Nigeria the Institute has tagged the relationship with ACBF as ‘The partnership that works’”, she added.