Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC) has formally unveiled a SERVICOM Charter to further aid the provision of excellent services, specifically in its role on export licensing, market linkages and statutory functions of the council.
The NEPC SERVICOM Unit of the Council puts the Service Charter document together.
Speaking at the launch in Abuja, the executive director/CEO of NEPC, Olusegun Awolowo, said since inception in March 2004, SERVICOM had remained as one of the effective public service machinery institutionalised to ensure customer satisfaction by MDAs.
Awolowo said the role of the Council in the country’s economic diversification drive had never been in doubt and could therefore not be overemphasised, especially now that the present government of President Muhammadu Buhari had placed more emphasis on the need for more sustainable economy through the non-oil export sector.
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“It is in line with the need to provide prompt and adequate service (to our customers) that would change the narratives of the contribution of non-oil export sector of Nigerian economy that I recently reconstituted the NEPC SERVICOM Unit, and charged them to write a Service Charter, which we are presenting today.
“The Charter is basically an operational tool to guide our business conduct with our core clients, the exporters, and other stakeholders whom we are responsible and obliged to provide efficient services – as Trade Promotion Organisation, in line with expected international best practices.
“I am convinced that efficient service delivery at NEPC would ultimately translate to improved exports, inclusive growth, and increased revenue for government – as we hope to fully achieve NEPC’s Vision of ‘Making the world a market place for Nigerian non-oil products and services’.
“To this end, we expect our customers to constantly evaluate our performance and provide feedback on how to improve such services.”
Earlier on, in the course of reviewing the Charter, NEPC director of Policy and Strategy, Sidi-Aliyu Abdullahi, listed other purposes of the Charter to include: NEPC’s highest level commitment to providing best services; communicate rights, entitlements and responsibilities to clients; define the standard of services expected by customers and staff; enabled improved services; and creating free atmosphere for evaluation, monitoring and measurement of activities.
Commenting at the event, the national coordinator/CEO of SERIVICOM, Nnenna Akajemini, commended NEPC for taking the bull by the horn – in presenting the Charter, especially as “this will provide the solid base for customers to demand to be served fairly, promptly, transparently and in time – in line with the goals for which SERVICOM was established.
“Making this public that NEPC have now properly documented a guide and standard for us to ensure that quality services are truly provided with measureable timelines, and when they fail we hold them accountable”.
The launch was graced by the director Reform Coordination and Service Improvement of Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, Affiong Umoh, exporters, the organised private sector and representatives of relevant Ministries. The review date for the current NEPC Service Charter is December 2020.
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