Concerned by reports of mass casualties on the high seas, enslavement and other misfortunes experienced by Nigerian youths seeking to migrate to Europe, the Industrial Training Fund (ITF) is appealing to stakeholders to collaborate with the organisation to equip more Nigerians with skills for employability and entrepreneurship.
Director-general/CEO of the ITF, Joseph Ari, who stated this when he received some stakeholders of the fund on Tuesday, explained that equipping Nigerians with relevant skills was not only in line with the Federal Government’s efforts to create jobs, but would stem the current wave of migration, especially by the youth, that has culminated in loss of lives and enslavement of thousands of productive Nigerians in foreign lands.
Ari expressed worry about the mass migration, despite the fact that several surveys by the ITF and other organisations have showed that, in Nigeria, skills gaps and vacancies exist that were being filled by foreigners.
He stated that it was with a view to equipping Nigerians with skills to fill these existing vacancies that the ITF has embarked on a number of initiatives and expanded programmes to ensure that more Nigerians are empowered with skills to check unemployment and promote entrepreneurship.
Ari listed some of the programmes to include the National Industrial Skills Development Programme (NISDP), Passion to Profession, Training on Wheels Using Mobile Training Units, the Women Skills Empowerment Programme (WOSEP), the Technical Skills Development Project (TSDP) as well as the Vulnerable and Indigent Youth Empowerment Programme (VIYEP), among several others.
Shedding more light on the NISDP, which has trained over 100,000 Nigerians since it commenced, the DG said, under the current phase in the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, the ITF is training 11,100 trainees with skills in welding and fabrication, tailoring and garment making, and plumbing and pipe fitting.
According tom Ari, in the last one year alone, over 70,000 Nigerians benefited from the skills programmes, and all the beneficiaries were given starter packs to begin their business.
He said about 90 per cent of the beneficiaries were successful entrepreneurs or earning livelihoods as paid employees according to the monitoring and evaluation of graduates conducted by the ITF.
Ari noted that some of the programmes were carried out in collaboration with several organisations and agencies in the private and public sectors, in order to check unemployment and promote entrepreneurship.
He said that state governments, for instance, could collaborate with the ITF towards the establishment of industrial skill training centres, which would be managed by the ITF on their behalf, noting that expanding access to skills acquisition that would create jobs would discourage Nigerian youths from seeking greener pastures outside the shores of the country.
The DG warned that, if drastic action was not taken, the illegal migration problem would further escalate going by projections that, by 2050, Nigeria’s population will soar over 500 million; however, if equipped with the requisite skills, the large population could become advantageous.
In his remarks, Mr. Danjuma Gyang, a representative of the stakeholders, commended the ITF on its initiatives, noting that they would positively reverse the unemployment situation by directly creating jobs.
Gyang urged all stakeholders to collaborate with the ITF in order for the organisation to expand its programmes to accommodate more Nigerians willing to acquire skills.