The Industrial Training Fund (ITF) has introduced a transformative initiative christened “Skill-up Artisans (SUPA) to upskill, license, and empower 5 million Nigerian artisans in a year.
The Director-General of the Fund, Dr. Afiz Oluwatoyin Ogun, who disclosed this at the 2023 Annual Merit Award of the organization in Jos, Plateau State, said the program will be carried out by collating data of Nigerian artisans that may undergo training where required, certification, and licensing for better job opportunities both locally and internationally.
He pointed out that ITF has commenced the collation of data on Nigerian artisans, has so far registered thousands of artisans, and has also established a call centre that is manned twenty-four hours a day to answer calls and questions and provide necessary information on SUPA to the general public.
Ogun further narrated that SUPA reflects the Nigerian government’s commitment to promoting economic development and improving the standard of living of citizens across the country.
“It is intended to drive national development, ensure the availability of skilled artisanal workers for domestic industries, and create a sustainable pipeline for labour exports. It will equally boost the pool of local artisans with proficiency in diverse skills, among other benefits,” he mentioned.
The Director-General called on the state governments, the organized private sector, non-governmental organizations, faith-based organizations, and we’ll mean Nigerians to collaborate with the ITF in an effort to revitalize the Nigerian economy, especially in the area of SUPA.
On the implementation of skills intervention programs, DOgun pointed out that ITF has so far trained over 42,000 Nigerians who were empowered with start-up packs under the National Industrial Skills Development Programme (NISDP), Women Skills Empowerment Programme (WOSEP), Skills Training and Empowerment for the Physically Challenged (STEPP-C), Construction Skills Empowerment Program (CONSEP), N-BUILD, Project T-Max, Modular Skills Development, and Technical Skills Development Program (TSDP) in collaboration with the Nigerian Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA).
He added that in the area of direct training and capacity development for MSMEs, the Fund implemented 565 scheduled and unscheduled training programs for 11,992 organizations from 908 organizations.
“In addition, we carried out performance and productivity improvement surveys for 48 companies and developed 35 training programs, of which 28 were implemented. Similarly, in appreciation of the importance of MSMEs to Nigeria’s economic growth, the Fund conducted monitoring and evaluation of MSMEs clinics for 241 participants and provided business support services and business needs assessments for 159 and 254 MSME operators, respectively.”
Ogun also pointed out that in the year under review, the fund paid a total sum of One Billion, One Hundred and Forty-Two Million, Two Hundred and Twenty-Three Thousand, and Five Hundred Naira as SIWES students and supervisory allowances.
He mentioned that the breakdown of the figure depicted that the sum of N733,035,000 was paid to 48,869 university students, N232,970,00 was paid to 23,297 polytechnic students, and the sum of N72,380,000 was paid to 7,238 students in colleges of education.
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