FG Expresses Concern over Rising Unemployment

Seriki Adinoyi in Jos

The federal government has again expressed serious concern over rising rate of unemployment and poverty in Nigeria, charging the Industrial Training Fund (ITF) to double efforts at arresting the situation.

Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Niyi Adebayo, who gave the charge yesterday  in Jos during 2021 ITF merit award, also appealed to state governments, non-governmental organisations, and spirited Nigerians to complement the fund’s efforts at ending the menace.

Describing ITF as one of the most important agencies and most result-oriented parastatal under his ministry, the minister, who was represented by Nagogo Mohammad said: “From the scorecard presented by the Director-General earlier, it is obvious to me that rather than allow the weight of your achievements to lull you into complacency or to rest on your oars, you have become more vibrant and determined in the pursuit of your mandate.”

 He added:“This, for me, is not entirely surprising, given the Fund’s track record since the inauguration of President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR as the President of Nigeria.

“From reports available to me, I am fully aware that in the last six years you implemented several life transforming skills intervention programmes and other initiatives that empowered thousands of Nigerians with requisite skills for employability and entrepreneurship. 

I am equally not oblivious of the fact that in order to ameliorate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on your numerous stakeholders, the Fund conducted online training programmes free of charge for organisations, while also playing a key role in the implementation of the MSMEs Survival Fund, which was introduced by the Federal Government to cushion the effect of the pandemic on Nigerians.

“These are no doubt commendable feats but the Federal Government expects more from Agencies such as the ITF as it strives to grow the National economy and resolve other challenges that are confronting our country today.”

Also commending ITF for its laudable achievements, Plateau State Governor, Simon Lalong acknowledged that his state has been a major beneficiary of the Fund’s skills intervention programmes especially under the leadership of the current Director General, Sir Joseph Ari.

Represented by, Mr. Kwamkur Vondip, the Governor said, “From records available to me, over 4000 youths and women from the state have benefited from the following programmes of the ITF: The National Industrial Skills Development Programme (NISDP), the Women Skills Empowerment Programme (WOSEP), the Passion to Profession Programme (P2PP), Agripreneurship, Art of Culinary and Information Skill Empowerment Programme (ISEP) amongst many others.

“While I commend the ITF for its outstanding performance in year 2021, I want to assure of the readiness of the Plateau State Government to continue to collaborate and support the ITF  as  I believe that only through such collaborations will some of the problems including unemployment, incessant insecurity and other social vices be effectively tackled.”

Earlier, the Director General of the Fund, Sir Joseph Ari presented an overwhelming scorecards, said “Despite of the many challenges of 2021, we implemented the following skills intervention programmes namely, the National Industrial Skills Development Programme (NISDP), Women Skills Empowerment Programme (WOSEP), Agri-preneurship Skills Empowerment Programme (AGSEP), Federal Government Skills Empowerment Programme (FEGOSEP), Special Skills Intervention Programme (SSIP), Modular Skills Development Programme and Technical Skills Development Project (TSDP). Together, the programmes trained over 16,000 Nigerians that were empowered with start-up packs for them to set up on their own.”

He said, “Similarly, the five ITF Skills Training Centres spread across the Federation trained a total of 3,397 Nigerians in various trades and crafts. A breakdown of the figure shows that the Industrial Skills Training Centre (ISTC), Ikeja, trained 436 Nigerians; Model Skills Training Centre (MSTC), Abuja, 763; Industrial Skills Training Centre (ISTC), Lokoja, 354; Industrial Skills Training Centre (ISTC), Kano, 294 and; the Centre for Excellence (CFE), Bukuru, 1550.

“As a mark of our commitment to ensuring that more Nigerians acquire skills, we have commenced processes for the implementation of other skills intervention programmes this year. The Programmes earmarked for implementation are the Passion 2 Profession Programme (P2PP), Construction Skills Empowerment Programme (CONSEP), Women Skills Empowerment Programme (WOSEP), National Industrial Skills Development Programme (NISDP),  Agri-preneurship Skills Empowerment Programme (AGSEP), Special Skills Development Programme (SSDP), ITF-NECA TSDP and, Skills Training and Empowerment Programme for the Physically Challenged (STEPP-C).

He said that in the year under review, ITF paid a total of (N4,613,599,508.72) to 448 companies as reimbursement to contributing employers.

He said the Fund is willing to go extra mile to equip Nigerians with the necessary tools for employability and entrepreneurship that will lead to the growth and development of Nigeria.