ITF Unveils Fresh Plans to Tackle Unemployment, Poverty in Nigeria

Seriki Adinoyi

The Industrial Training Fund (ITF) has unveiled four-year strategic positive direction to fight the upsurge of unemployment and poverty among Nigerian youths.

Disclosing this in Jos, Director General of ITF, Joseph Ari said he was glad that the previous plans have impacted positively on Nigerian economy noting that the new plan was aimed at addressing the current challenges.

He observed that the strategic policy direction is the third of such plans by the incumbent administration in ITF to turn out talented entrepreneurs who have become employers of labour.

Ari said, “You are aware that unemployment in Nigeria today is at over 33% as over 23 million Nigerians that are desirous to work cannot find jobs, mostly because of the absence of requisite skills. Poverty is equally on the rise with some estimates placing the number of Nigerians that are living in poverty at over 90 million. 

“In the face of all these, our population has continued to soar with the World Bank estimating that Nigeria might hit 216 million by the end of this year. Equally worrisome is the spectre of the Out-of School children, which according to the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) is projected to be over 18.5 million.”

He explained that the strategic plan considered the need to scale up activities towards addressing the soaring unemployment and other socio-economic challenges by leveraging on expertise, expensive network, deployment of technology for wider coverage and more flexible service delivery.

He added that the policy framework, “Re-engineering skills for sustainable development has external components which entail value reorientation, industrial development, commercialization of ITF facilities, alternative funding window, deployment and promotion and annual budget preparation.

He said, “To actualize this, the Fund will collaborate with relevant public and private stakeholders for NATS; appraise and harmonize apprenticeship programmes in line with set guidelines; conduct monitoring and evaluation and; design and develop technical and vocational skills programmes in line with the needs of the economy.

“When fully in place, our plan will ensure a pool of highly skilled indigenous apprentices, technicians and craftsmen as well as an institutionalized National Apprenticeship and Traineeship System (NATS). The intended outcome of this strategy is to have at least a total of 27,000 skilled and employable youths (18,000 trained youths under the NATS and 9,000 youths under the NISDP and other intervention programmes) and increased SMEs and Entrepreneurs to meet the Nation’s economic needs.”