The Industrial Training Fund has said if Nigerians are equipped with the requisite skills, unemployment and poverty will be reduced.
Speaking at the graduation of the 2021 National Industrial Skills Development Programme, ITF/ISTC, Ikeja, Director-General, ITF, Mr Joseph Ari, explained that Nigerians would be able to take advantage of the numerous policies of the federal government that were designed to boost the economy and improve the standard of living if they were equipped with life skills.
The programme had 100 beneficiaries who were also given start-up packs.
Ari who was represented by Director, Research and Curriculum Development Department, Mr Zaccharia Piwuna, said, “I believe that if Nigerians are equipped with requisite skills, unemployment and poverty will be reduced and the attendant damages they have on all facets of our national life. It will divorce unemployment from the needless incidents of violence that have claimed thousands of lives across the nation.
“It will equally be difficult to separate the rising criminality and harmful social vices that are being perpetrated by Nigerians and therefore, we must strive to find a way to address these challenges.
“On our part, as the leading human capacity development institution in Nigeria, we are committed to implementing skills acquisition programmes to equip Nigerians with life skills for employability and entrepreneurship so that they can take advantage of the numerous policies of the federal government that are designed to boost the economy and improve the standard of living of Nigerians.”
He also appealed to state governments, the organised private sector, Non-Governmental Organisations, politicians and other stakeholders to collaborate with the ITF so as to train more Nigerians.
Commissioner, Lagos State Ministry of Wealth Creation and Employment, Mrs Yetunde Arobieke, appealed to the beneficiaries to utilise their start-up packs and not sell them off.
Arobieke who was represented by Director, Entrepreneurship Development, Ministry of Wealth Creation and Employment, Mrs Taiwo Abiose, added that the most enduring solution to tackling poverty and unemployment was skills acquisition.
She said, “The most enduring solution to tackling poverty and unemployment is to empower the youths and the vulnerable in our society. It is my fervent belief that for Nigeria to be truly industrialised, we all have to take the acquisition of relevant and contemporary skills seriously.”
Training Manager, Industrial Skills Training Centre, Mr James Fanope, advised Nigerian youths to learn and embrace skills, saying it was the new technology that would help them become employers of labour.
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