By AHMED UBANDOMA

The Federal Government is to create a portal with a view to engage, re-energise and reactivate capacity of older persons who wish to continue offering services after retirement.

Dr Emem Omokaro, the Director-General of National Senior Citizens Centre (NSCC), said this on Wednesday at a collaborative meeting with relevant government agencies and stakeholders on service level in Abuja.

The meeting tagged, “NSCC Continuing Engagement Bureau Programme” is aimed at building a foundation of synergy between the centre and its critical partners.

Omokaro said the intervention was in realization of the huge potential in the older persons that could be tapped into national development.

”The aim of the collaboration is also to assist the centre to create an online portal that would engage older persons who are professionals in their different field of endeavour to tap in their wealth of experiences.

“This is a gathering of service level collaborators on continuing engagement bureau projects, continuing engagement means that we are disrupting retirements.

“We are creating platforms and tools, we are creating spaces for older persons who wish to continue to engage and have the opportunities to do so

“You know, older persons have a right to contribute in any area they so wish and they also have a right to access the labour market after retirement not necessarily that they are to be employed by the government.

“We believe that older persons have a lot of talent and potential, they have expertise and skills so we can incubate their experiences,’ she said.

“We have built our portal because we need all the data that we need to have, whether you retired from the federal civil service, states or local governments level.

“We are creating these platforms, and we are also identifying agencies that we need at this service level.

“So, in essence the programme is really mobilising our older people because we want to show the wealth that Nigeria has and our approach is we are positioning NSCC to create wealth,” she said.

The director-general said that the portal would be operational latest by April.

Also speaking, Mr Aminu Hayatudeen, a representative of the National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion (NOTAP) commended the zeal and passion of the centre in creating a platform that would better the lot of older persons in the country.

Hayatudeen said the portal when created would assist the centre with an accurate database of older persons who are professionals in their different fields. (NAN)

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