The Federal Civil Service Commission has disagreed with widespread belief that the civil service has more hands than necessary.
The Commission chairman, Prof. Tunji Olaopa, asserted this in Abuja on Wednesday at the commission’s three-day retreat held from June 30 to July 2, 2025.
Olaopa said the claim that the problem of the service is overstaffed is misguided.
Instead, he said the problem with the service is that the workforce is poor in relevant skills.
“If you benchmark the workforce of the federal civil service against other countries, you’ll find that our workforce is actually small.
“But the problem is we have a huge number of staff, most of whom lack the requisite skills to function, while the skills that the system needs are scarce,” he remarked.
Before he added, “It’s about putting the right people in the right roles and building a civil service that supports national priorities.”
