Group to Train 18,000 Youths on Vocations, Skills Acquisition

Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja

To help revive Nigeria’s dwindling economy occasioned by the fall in the price of crude oil, which had in turn forced many people into the labour market, the Multi-Net Group said it has devised a model to train 18,000 youths in order to make them self-sufficient.

The Chairman of the company, Dr. Uzoma Obiyo gave the hint at a recent press conference in Abuja, where he stressed that vocational skills have the capacity to impact and resuscitate the ailing economy.

According to him, “the private sector has a major role to play; that is where the Multi-Net group falls in. When we say we drive the five major sectors of the economy that means we can in these areas create jobs, in the agricultural sector. In this sector we already have a model that has the capacity to create 15,000 jobs, within the first twelve months of this project, the minute we are able to do the ground breaking of our animal husbandry project, coming up in partnership with the Ministry of Agriculture.”

He noted that if the government could put a lot of effort into skills acquisition and vocational training, and said aside having the capacity to improve on the economy, it also has the capacity to ensure that more jobs are created for the teeming unemployed Nigerian youths.

Obiyo lamented that in Nigeria University graduates are not skillful, saying; “you leave university and the next thing that occurs to you is that you need white-collar job; these white collar jobs are not available anymore in Nigeria. In civilised countries, you see such economies emerging because of skills acquisitions and vocational training, and this is what the governments of today are very passionate about.”

“We have the manpower, we have all that are required to train Nigerian youths in a lot of areas, the artisan training, the mechatronics, the agricultural sector-poultry can create a lot of jobs for Nigerian youth. We are about to develop a model that has the capacity to take millions of Nigerian youths out of the job market, in poultry, crops and even animal husbandry that we are planning to embark on.

“We have a structure in place for vocational training and skills acquisition which we have in the six geo-political zones of this country as Multi-Net Group. Our facility has the capacity to take in over 18,000 youths, which we have the capacity to train within a period of six months in different areas,” he revealed.

The chairman revealed further that the company has the capacity to train the youths to become independent and entrepreneurs of their own in areas like agriculture engineering, project management, brick-laying, plumbing, carpentry, mechanical and electrical engineering.

“The aim is to create more entrepreneurs in Nigeria, to begin to get our youths off the street, by getting them to see the possible ways of doing things on their own to make money, rather than relying on seeking employment in ministry,” Obiyo stressed.

He expressed optimism that once the government is open and very sincere to this project, he said his company would be able to take out quite a number of youths out of the job market in Nigeria.
He however called on all State governments to embrace skills acquisition on a national platform which the federal government has been applying to get youths off the street.