The Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) has disclosed plans to expand its loan programme to vocational skills centres across the country, likely to commence between the next six to eight weeks.
Managing Director of the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND), Mr. Akintunde Sawyerr, made this known during a strategic engagement and sensitisation campaign on operations of the Fund in Enugu State.
He explained that the vocational training support through loans was aimed at helping individuals access technical education at various skill centres, including fashion design and other skills.
Sawyerr revealed that Enugu was pencilled down as one of the states from which it would kick off the skills acquisition and vocational training support.
He said: “We are working on it now, and we’re going to have some discussions with the executive governor and his team, because we want to start it here.
“The president has also instructed that we focus on areas where the governments or the institutions of state and instrument are ready to work with us, so that we can have quick takeoff. I think that within the next six to eight weeks, you will see us kick something off.”
Meanwhile, during a tour of the Enugu Garments and Fashion Hub on Friday in Enugu, NELFUND’s Executive Director Operations, Mr. Iyal Mustapha, said out of over 10 states equipped with vocational and skills training facilities, Enugu State had the best.
“Presently, we have other states, almost more than 10 states that we have seen such but then, Enugu is one of the best.”
“Enugu is going to be one of the first states or one of the first locations we are looking at to start. With what I see, there is a lot of positivity.
“We have seen different skill centres from the technical colleges to the vocational skill centres like the fashion design and they are all very positive for us at NELFUND. I would not say that Enugu will be the only state but one of the first states to start with.”
Mustapha explained that NELFUND, just like the student loan component of its mandate, would open its portal up for those interested in acquiring training in either of the various forms of vocation and skills, to apply.
According to him, the loan programme would cover training costs, provide upkeep support and supply beneficiaries with tools after the training.
“We are going to have these centres in place to say if you apply from Enugu this is where to go in Enugu. We are going to pay for their training costs, we are going to be giving them upkeep and at the end of the day, they will have some working tools when they finish their training.”
Mustapha said, “We are still trying to complete that into our guideline. The training cost is based on what the centre is proposing, that’s what we are paying but the institutional charges is going to be part of the loan because it’s to support them with the transport coming to these skill centres.
“It’s a work in progress and the country is always evolving. The government is seeing the value in skills and vocation just to support the community.”
Special Advisor to the Governor on Digital Economy and MSMEs, Arinze Chilo-Offiah said the Enugu government was committed to building a skilled and employable youth population thus, it was focused on skills development through initiatives such as the Fashion and Garment Hub, ICT centres, and vocational schools like the upgraded Government Technical College (GTC).
Chilo-Offiah, who doubles as the DG of the Enugu SME Centre, noted that the state was ready to key into the skills acquisition component of NELFUND, even as he added that the government was targeting exploring the Garment and Fashion Hub to become a production facility for all uniforms in the state.
“We just wanted to show them the world-class facilities we have here to let NELFUND know that we are ready to key into the skills acquisition component of the fund.
“One component is to take care of school fees and upkeep of tertiary institution students, the other aspect is vocational skills. We just came from the Government Technical College (GTC) revamped world class facilities there, we are also showing them our fashion hub.
“As you can see, Enugu is ready to absorb all the support from NELFUND. They will be able to provide us with zero-interest loans for training in fashion.”
On capacity of the fashion hub, he noted, “We have about 150 industrial sewing machines here, we have world-class monogramming machines. We can seat at any given point in time 300 plus or closer to 500.”
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