The Director-General of the Industrial Training Fund (ITF), Sir Joseph N. Ari, has identified the acquisition of technical skills as a critical driver to the realisation of Nigeria’s national development plans.
According to a statement issued by the Head of Public Affairs, Mrs Suleyol Fred Chagu, Sir Ari stated this while presenting a paper titled: “The Place of Skills in National Development: the ITF Perspective”, at the recently concluded 11th National Council on Industry in Uyo, Akwa Ibom state.
The Director-General described Skills and National Development as Siamese twins, noting that economic development, which is a critical ingredient for national development, is driven by available skills and competences.
Sir Ari blamed the failure of various development plans on poor leadership, bad followership, corruption, poor strategies, poor execution of policies and programmes, underdeveloped, irresponsible and parasitic private sector and weak civil service.
The DG, however, noted that despite these problems, the Nation’s development plans would be achieved with greater investments in skills acquisition.
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He said as a part of efforts to address skills shortage in Nigeria, the Fund in collaboration with United Nation Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) conducted a Skills Gap Assessment Survey in Six Priority Areas of the Nigerian Economy, namely, agro-allied, oil and gas, construction, metal and solid mineral, light manufacturing and services.
According to him, the report of the survey depicted that skills were lacking in various sectors of the economy, adding that ITF had trained over 450,000 Nigerians in various skills through its intervention programmes to accelerate economic growth while half of the numbers were already earning sustainable livelihoods either as paid employees or entrepreneurs in their various skills.
“The ITF has equipped over 450,000 Nigerians with various skills for employability and entrepreneurship. Information from our monitoring and evaluation process indicates that over half of that number now earns sustainable livelihoods either as paid employees or entrepreneurs,” he stated.
Ari said that the intervention programmes were designed and implemented in a way that guaranteed sustainability, adding that the programmes were geared towards addressing the target of sustainable development such as gender, equity, poverty alleviation, economic growth, peace and justice.
He, however, explained that lack of harmonisation of skills development, the unwillingness of employers to accept students seeking placement under the Student Industrial Work Experience Scheme (SIWES), Nigerians’ poor perception and attitude among others, were the challenges confronting the implementation of ITF intervention programmes.
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