By Gyang Bere, Jos
The Industrial Training Fund (ITF) has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development to train 23,000 Nigeria youths in various skills to compliment President Muhammadu Buhari’s policy on youths development.
Director-General of the ITF, Joseph Ari, said during the signing of the MoU at the headquarters of the Fund in Jos that the 23,00 youths will be trained in 21 different areas to equip them with requisite skills that would make them self employed.
He noted that they have drawn up 21 training areas, which include agro-allied which has a lot of value chains, welding and fabrication, carpentry, plumbing, electrical and installations, Information and communication technology, facilities management technology, health and safety, photography and others.
‘We have kept faith with your desire to train the youths, we are expected to train 23,000 Nigeria young men and women, that would mean training 600 per State including the Federal Capital Territory Abuja. The training will be for three months after which they would be released to the labour market,’ he said.
According to him, the youth empowerment scheme is a brand new initiative, which would be continuous, because, if you look at the youth budget, we have a number of youths, which we want to quickly up-skill them. He explained that l like l said the government is in a hurry to make sure that, we upskill our youths, to support them, put them on the part entrepreneurship.
Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Mr Sunday Dare, said the mandate of ITF and his ministry is similar when it comes to youth development.
He said beyond the 23, 000 youths that would be trained in various skills, millions of youths and women will be engaged as the year roll by.
Hon Dare pointed out that Nigeria has people that are endowed with various talents and great resources that can make Nigeria great interm National Economic Development added that the young ones need to be equipped to bring out the best in them.
Said he: ‘Those that established ITF had a good vision because at a time like this ITF remains a critical partner in helping our youths to get the desire skills they need. Also, we must thank President Mohammadu Buhari for signing for the first time Nigeria Youths Investment Fund to the tune of N75 billion for the next three years. This means investing in the skilled talent, enterprise and business of the youths.’