FG using vocational trainings to improve living standard of citizens — Minister

The Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Mr Umana Okon Umana, has said that the present administration is assisting to improve the living standard of many Nigerians by providing them with vocational training in a wide range of marketable skills that cut across ICT, electrical works, agriculture, masonry, and carpentry.

Umana said this at the commissioning of a skills acquisition centre at Abaezi in Oha/Egbema Local Government Area of Imo State.

The skills centre which was built by the Ministry was formally handed over, after the commissioning, to the Federal Polytechnic at Nekede in Owerri, capital of Imo State, to be used as a back-up facility for practical training in technical education.

The centre, which ranks as a modern village, complete with landscaping,  is made up of  an administrative block; technical blocks; a conference building; an ICT centre; a cafeteria; student hostels; a clinic; a ware house/store; a road network; sport facilities; covered drains; a generator house; and a water treatment plant for reticulated water supply.

The Minister said the project was handled by local contractors as a deliberate policy to create jobs for youths in the community and to impart skills. He urged the host community to protect the training facility and guarantee its long-term use.

The Governor of Imo State, Sen. Hope Uzodinma, who was represented by the  Deputy Governor, Professor Placid Njoku, expressed the appreciation of the people and government of the state to the Federal Government for the facility and advised the Federal Polytechnic, Nekede, to see the provision of the facility as a further incentive to do more in deepening its reputation as the leading tertiary institution in the country in innovative practical education.

The Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs targets all the nine states of the region with skills centre. Some of the centres have been completed and put to use over the years, while some are at advanced stages of completion. The skills centre in Otuoke, Bayelsa State, was handed over to the Federal University Otuoke for use in 2015.