Foundation Invests $20m for Infrastructure, Donates CBT Centre to PSIN

Kuni Tyessi in Abuja

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has contributed about $20 million to infrastructure development in Nigeria and has provided an 80-seat Computer Based Test (CBT) centre to promote e-governance through ICT‎.

The Head of the Federal Civil Service, Mrs. Winifred Oyo-Ita, who disclosed this during the inauguration of the centre at the Public Service Institute of Nigeria (PSIN), ‎said the contribution of the foundation is expected to develop modules for various training programmes of public officers in the areas of leadership development, ICT, entrepreneurship development and public-private partnership.

The centre, expected to hold about 200 candidates at once, 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 in identified need areas.‎

According to Oyo-Ita: “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. The new 80-seat CBT centre will among other things, shorten the time frame used in conducting computer based tests. With this facility, about 200 candidates can now sit for CBT at once in the institute. This will lead to more transparency and enhanced integrity of our examination process.

“Building the capacity of the PSIN will 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 arms.

“Repositioning PSIN is tantamount to building capacity of public servants 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.

In his remaks, the Chief Executive Officer of PSIN, Dr. Abdul-Ganiyu Obatoyinbo said ACBF has made several efforts and is still helping the institute to achieve the mandate bestowed on it by building capacity.