The Industrial Training Fund has disclosed that if Nigerians are equipped with requisite skills, unemployment and poverty would be reduced. Speaking at the graduation of the 2021 National Industrial Skills Development Programme (ITF/ISTC), Ikeja, Lagos State, the Director-General of ITF, Mr. Joseph Ari, stated that Nigerians would be able to take advantage of the many policies of the Federal Government put in place to energise the economy and improve the standard of living of the people.
Ari, who was represented by the Director, Research and Curriculum Development Department of the fund, Mr. Zaccharia Piwuna, said “I believe that if Nigerians are equipped with requisite skills, unemployment and poverty will be reduced and the attendant damages they have on all facets of our national life. It will divorce unemployment from the needless incidents of violence that have claimed thousands of lives across the nation. It will equally be difficult to separate the rising criminality and harmful social vices that are being perpetrated and therefore, we must strive to find a way to address these challenges”. Ari called on state governments, the organised private sector, non-governmental organisations and other stakeholders to collaborate with the ITF in order to train more Nigerians.
The Lagos State Commissioner in the Ministry of Wealth Creation and Employment, Mrs. Yetunde Arobieke, admonished beneficiaries to utilise their start-up packs and avoid selling them off. The commissioner, who was represented by the Director, Entrepreneurship Development in the ministry, Mrs. Taiwo Abiose, said that the most enduring solution to tackling poverty and unemployment was skills acquisition for “The most enduring solution to tackling poverty and unemployment is to empower youths and the vulnerable in our society. It is my fervent belief that for Nigeria to be truly industrialised, we all have to take the acquisition of relevant and contemporary skills seriously”. On his part, the Training Manager, Industrial Skills Training Centre, Mr. James Fanope, advised Nigerian youths to learn and embrace skills because they remained the new technology that would help them become employers of labour.
