From Fred Itua, Abuja
Bank of Industry (BOI), on Tuesday, revealed that they have disbursed about N2 billion to corps members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC).
Executive Director, Small and Medium Enterprise of the Government-owned bank, Shekarau Omar, made the revelation.
He said the bank is willing to engage the graduates of Graduate Employability Skills and Terraskills (GES) Foundation by helping them take their interest to the next level.
Omar spoke at the official launch of the Graduate Employability Skills – Maiden Edition – organised by TerraSkills Learning Systems Limited in Abuja
According to him, “Bank of Industry have graduates empowerment scheme in collaboration with National Youth Service Corps and have disbursed close to two billion naira to Corps members who are about leaving the camp. We train them on various skills and quite a number of them are doing very well on their own.
“Capacity building is key to improving the economy. I have gone through the document and the seven objectives are equivalent to 100 or 200 page documents that is what we need at various levels in Nigeria, if we are able to do this a lot of people will not be roaming the streets carrying arms or doing drugs. If you build people capacity , you are building their lives.
“If you give people knowledge in terms of capacity, you have given them power for life. What Tarraskills is doing today is saving lives. We are looking forward to many Nigerians that can join this train in given capacity to Nigerians.”
Similarly, the Director-General, Industrial Training Fund (ITF), Jose Ari, said what has given the West an edge over Africans is skills and they have used their skills to develop their economy.
He added that, it is not sufficient for us to have graduates , u can show you someone with certificate and is hungry and another with skills and has food in is table. You can have certificate and be hungry and you might have skilss and you will bever go hungry. So we must find the meeting point and that is what we are talking about today.
Ari further stated that unemployment is a common thing in most homes, is either your siblings, husbands, wives, family,or friends are unemployed and to overcome these challenges we need need skills.
He said what skills do in terms of employment is that it skills enhances productivity either at individual or national level.
“For us at ITF, we see skills as the currency of the 21st century because what drives the economy is skills. You must have skills to be able to multitask when necessary,” he said.
Earlier in his address of welcome, the General Manager, Terraskills Learning Systems Limited, Donald Ogbuwa said they have been able train over 4000 graduates between the ages 20 and 30 on different skills.
According to him, “The Terraskills Learning Systems Limited founder , Senator Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, the Deputy Chief Whip discovered the challenge of skill mix match among graduates and took it upon himself to find a solution to bridge the skill gap among the Nigerian graduates and workplace requirements.
“The issue of kidnapping, banditry , and terrorism are all problem of unemployment. When you are skilled and employed you will become a hot cake in any industry.
“This Programme provides tools and resources needed to build up graduates which will give significant and lasting impact on all graduates that have benefitted from the programme.”