Joseph Ari, the Executive Director of the Industrial Training Fund (ITF), in this interview by ISAAC SHOBAYO, speaks about how the fund is being used to complement the efforts of the Federal Government towards repositioning the economy.
WHAT is your assessment of your journey so far in this office as the one in charge?
It has been interesting and equally challenging. In the next few days, my administration will be marking its second year in office, which would mean that my management will have three more years to go in the saddle of the affairs of operations of the industrial training fund. It will be recalled that when we came in, the ITF was at the edge of collapse; there was industrial disharmony among the workforce. Our stakeholders were not satisfied with our services. But being an insider, we hit the ground running by unveiled a lot of policies. it has been a beneficial journey. Although change is constant, we are not satisfied with the way or position the ITF is occupying because we believe that we have a lot to offer this nation by way of service to our fatherland and as contributions to the economy.
You have been here at the ITF as an ordinary staff member, later as director, and now as director. How has the fund evolved into what it is today?
As an insider, I had the privilege of heading the Public Affairs, Administration and Human Resources, Corporate ,Planning, Business Training Development departments and later serving as the chairman, Research Committee and Management. I have a fair knowledge of the enormous responsibility of this great institution. As soon as my leadership was unveiled by President Muhammadu Buhari, we needed a blueprint that would guide us and carry the workforce along and we unveiled the ITF reviewed vision. In that vision, we have strategies for the actualisation of the very robust mandate of the ITF and in identifying and drawing up such strategies; we were able to demarcate them along the line of short, medium and long term goals. We also went for those low-hanging fruits and their implementation began to sow seeds and also took hold of the mind and attention of Nigeria as to the direction we were going.
Since the establishment of the ITF almost 50 years ago, it has evolved from a single office in Lagos when it was a directorate in 1971 to what it is today. We have 45 area offices with vocational wings and five training centres as of today. That is why we pride ourselves as an agency with the most expansive network amongst most agencies of the Federal Government. We developed the ITF first training policy and its human capital base and implemented its first training program at the inception. With time, we realised that the management training program that the ITF was carrying out needed restructuring; we took cognisance of what would be beneficial to the Nigerian society.
Unemployment remains a major bane of Nigeria’s development. What is the ITF doing to help in this regard?
In the phase of curbing unemployment and the growing number of the poor, nations all over the world have resorted to skill acquisition and use it as a vehicle for equipping their citizenry with competitive skills for entrepreneurship and employability. The way unemployment rose, we needed all hands among all agencies of government to come together to institutionalise technical vocational educational training. Leaving youths without skills or manpower will create a lot of vices such as banditry, kidnapping and prostitution. So, there’s a need to address unemployment through the acquisition of skills, amongst others. It is for this reason that ITF sees skill acquisition as a universal currency of the 21st century and the most sustainable vehicle for job creation as well as poverty reduction.
What feedback mechanism do you use to assess how benefactors of your skill acquisition programmes are doing out there?
ITF as a result of its training capacity and network has been able to identify through research and use facilities such as the tracers studies, a tracking system that follows up on beneficiaries. After training the beneficiaries, we can use the tracers studies to identify where they have been settled, and what they are doing, to a large extent, how far they have gone in their trade. ITF has a symbolic relationship with its trainees by introducing some of them to certain loan facilities with the Bank of Industry. With the tracking system, we have come to realise that 80% of our trainees set up immediately or have paid employment, or are employers of labour.
How has the ITF contributed to the Federal Government’s economic diversification?
ITF has contributed to drawing up the NIRP document, a major contributor of the economic recovery plan, a member of the national skill council headed by the vice president as chairman, and member of the NISME council and even the survival fund as the chairing committee to actualise the stimulus plans of the Federal Government.
The government has been able to identify the important role of the institution in translating its policies to concrete reality. It is as a result of this that the vice president in 2019 gave the ITF the star partner award of the Federal Government. The government has since keyed into providing skills to Nigerians, meaning that it accepts the position of the ITF as the direction to go in equipping Nigerians with the requisite skills. For me, the institution has paid its dues and completely demonstrated support and solidarity to the Federal Government.
What is the ITF doing about staff welfare and development in terms of training?
In the reviewed vision, industrial harmony was one of the key aspects we have a focus on. We had three major approaches to our process of program delivery; one was to heal wounds because of the restiveness within the organisation to institutionalise love in the system. Secondly, we needed to engender peace and develop the workforce to a level where they will understand and thirdly, work as on God, meaning that we were going to be responsive and responsible citizens in terms of our application of our God-given talents to advance the mandate of the ITF. We also ensured that the conditions of service were congenial enough. Promotions have been given out every year and salaries have been paid without delay.
What is the major challenge facing the ITF?
Any human endeavour that has no challenge is not worth its name, role or mandate and this institution is not an exception. While we have made progress, we are also faced with some challenges. We have challenges: the fact that the awareness of the importance of skill acquisition is not yet accepted deeply by Nigerians. There is a need for it to be included in the curriculum of Nigeria’s educational system. Lack of harmonisation of skills amongst agencies of government as well as the private sector is also a problem. We need to come together as we are working at cross purposes; yet we are aiming at the same goal; harmonisation will address some of the issues we see today. We face the issue of finance; technical vocational training is capital intensive. To build and equip an industrial centre is in billions. Finance is a key factor in establishing more training centres in the six geo-political zones to escalate skills acquisition in the country.
Where do you see the ITF in the next 10 years?
I believe that with what we have done, ITF is well-grounded and only needs other people to come and consolidate. It has done considerably well in actualising its mandate with what we have put in place in terms of the building blocks and the machinery. I believe the ITF is well poised and can take the lead in matters of human capital development in Nigeria. In the next 10 years, I would love to see an ITF that has answered to its name as a leading learning and development agency that Nigerians depend upon in actualising the building of our economy; it must also add core values in taking Nigeria to the top across the globe, and as an institution it can compete favourably with government agencies worldwide.
President Muhammadu Buhari is determined to lift out 100 million Nigerians out of poverty. How will ITF skills acquisition programme help in complementing this effort?
The ITF took four sectors: construction, agriculture, transportation and manufacturing. If one agency can create 19 million jobs and other agencies contribute to it, we will meet the goal of 100 million. Creating direct 19 million jobs will lead to an additional creation of indirect jobs. ITF was among the sectors engaged by the government when the council was set up. We gave the council the know-how in arriving at the 100 million jobs. Our submission has been taken in and we hope that the government will study it and come to a reasonable conclusion where the ITF will be a party to the realisation of this laudable government policy.
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