Opaluwah: Quality Skills Will Boost Nigeria’s Economic Recovery

Oluchi Chibuzor

The Skills Council for Building in Nigeria has said that the country’s human, material, and natural resources can position it to be a global leader in the building and construction industry.

President of the Council, Samson Opaluwah said in a statement that the sector had lost opportunities in the past, adding that it was now time to embrace and promote new strategies for actualizing our nation’s rapid development.

Opaluwah also said that the need for Nigeria to focus on its human resources to revamp the economy cannot be overemphasized as Nigerians’ capacity to acquire competencies at whatever level worldwide was not in doubt.

He explained that with skills fully deployed, the country’s economic fortunes can be turned around such that the JAPA syndrome could be arrested noting that Skills are the quick fix to the challenge of youth unemployment. 

“Nigeria needs to focus on its human resources to revamp the economy. Nigerians’ capacity to acquire competencies at whatever level worldwide is not in doubt. The irony, however, is that the country is rich with potential in every sector but has a high youth population who are largely unskilled, underemployed, or unemployed. 

“With skills fully deployed, our country’s economic fortunes can be turned around so that many who are currently exiting the country will remain rather than run to the embrace of the unfriendly climate and people in some of these extremely cold countries. Skills are the quick fix to the challenge of youth unemployment. 

“The country needs to focus on skills development, acquisition, and deployment in both formal and informal education systems. Our institutions’ graduates are not industry-ready and are not attractive to labour employers. Those trained through the apprenticeship system in the informal sector are neither trained to a specified standard nor organized to provide quality service, “he said. 

“Therefore, the country needs to rethink its capacity-building and skills acquisition strategy. This calls for the introduction of Sector Skills Councils as a robust solution to unbundle the huge untapped capacity of Nigerian youth.

“Sector skills councils are platforms for systematic cooperation between the stakeholders in a particular sector of the economy, such as government bodies and training institutions, private sector organizations, trade unions, professional bodies, industry, regulatory bodies etc., to promote lifelong learning by connecting education to the labour market needs to promote employment and innovation by the development of relevant skills.

“Currently, Nigeria has fourteen Sector Skills Councils. Some of these are Power, Engineering, Building, Hospitality and Tourism, Automotive Industry, Education and care, Occupational Health and safety, Articulated Vehicles, ICT, Security, etc.”

Opaluwah further explained that the sector Skills Councils combine diverse stakeholders into one body, providing a one-stop-shop solution to skills gaps and mismatches and quickly addressing shortages. 

He opined that the absence of Sector Skills Councils has resulted in skills development issues being handled in silos and, in some cases overlapping and waste of resources by various skills development organisations in both the public and private sectors.