The Vice-Chancellor, Professor Kolawole Salako and Registrar, Dr Bola Adekola have bagged the University Secretarial Staff Association (USSA) Life Patron and Grand Patron Awards, respectively.

Presenting the Awards to the Principal Officers at the 7th In-house Workshop and 42nd National Delegates Conference of the University Secretarial Staff Association (USSA) with the Theme, “Enhancing Capacity Building For Sustainability of Secretarial Profession in the Digital Era”, National President, USSA, Comrade Ezeme Ogbonna disclosed that the Association enjoys the privilege of having all Vice-Chancellors who host National Delegates Conferences as Life Patrons and the Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC) as Grand Patron.

Comrade Ogbonna expressed gratitude to the University Management for its support to the Association which he described as a socio-professional, non-tribal, non-political and non-religious body that exists in all public and private Universities in Nigeria and had recently metamorphosed into a Union, following her successful integration with an existing body, ‘Nigeria Union of Public Service Reportorial, Secretarial, Data Processors and Allied Workers University Sector’ (NUPSRAW-US).

He enumerated some of the challenges facing its members to include the general working condition, under utilization and indiscriminate postings, stagnation / conversion of Chief Secretarial Assistants to Data Processors and promotion terminal point for Secretaries.

The National President presented the Association’s expectation of the University which he said would go a long way in bringing sanity and boost the morale of Secretarial staff in the discharge of their duties to include payment of hazard allowance, responsibility allowance, training, retraining and sabbatical leave for its members.

In his Address, The Vice-Chancellor, who was represented by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Development, Professor Lateef Sanni described the team of Secretaries the University is endowed with as some of the best any University could wish for.

He disclosed that the Secretaries have proven themselves to be responsible, efficient and reliable members of the University workforce who display high professionalism in the discharge of their duties.

According to him, the functions of Secretaries are crucial and essential to the success of every organisation, hence the need for them to continually develop themselves, in order to be more relevant in their profession.

Professor Salako charged them to improve on confidentiality, filing system and general office management.

Corroborating the Vice-Chancellor, the Registrar, Dr. Bola Adekola while delivering the Lecture of the Workshop reiterated the importance of secretaries as gate keepers whose functions include dealing with visitors, posts and telephone calls, text production, typing and word processing, routine office work, such as filing, photocopying and serving faxes, as well as general administration and organising meetings.

Speaking on the rationale behind capacity building for Secretaries, Dr Adekola disclosed that the Workshop as a process aims “to facilitate, in conjunction with the stakeholders, a consolidation of their capacities at an individual, organizational and sectoral level, in order to allow them to evolve and adapt to the new contextual requirements and fulfil their role within a structure”.

According to him, through proper capacity building, “today, secretaries who are also known as administrative assistants, office co-coordinators, executive assistants etc, are using computers, Internet and other advance office technologies to perform vital ‘Information management’ functions in the modern office and they no longer simply type correspondence for the boss but now, they often write that correspondence, as well as plan meetings, organize data using spreadsheet and database management”.

Highlighting tips required to be a super secretary, the Registrar said they include regular self development, building and maintaining positive relationships at work, being open minded, adjusting goals and setting new ones, switching on to technology, spending time with people, avoiding negative ones, developing skills and abilities, revising working routines and practices constantly.

Earlier in her Welcome Address, the Chairperson USSA FUNAAB Branch, Mrs. Camilla Fatunmbi appreciated the University Management and members of the Association for making the Workshop a reality, assuring that it would enhance their performance on the job with great output.

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