By Kingsley Okoye
The Director-General of the Industrial Training Fund (ITF), Mr Joseph Ari, has urged the National Assembly to support the agency in its quest to ament the Act setting up the fund to enhance global competitive skills of Nigerians in the labour market.Ari made the call at a one-day Public hearing on a Bill for an Act to amend the Industrial Training Fund Act, organised by the Senate Committee on Industries to get inputs of stakeholders on the proposed amendments.
The bill sponsored by Sen. Saidu Ahmed Alkali seeks to widen the scope of operations of ITF on provision of training for acquisition of managerial, technical and entrepreneurial skills for development in the public and private sectors of the economy. Ari said the amendments sought in the bill would expand the scope of its operations and enhance its activities.” The amendments are imperative now that unemployment in Nigeria has been estimated by the National Bureau of Statistics(NBS) in its unemployment and underemployment report of quarter four of 2020, to be over 23 million Nigerians despite several surveys on existence of vacancies in several sectors of the national economy. “
But this vacancies could not be filled because of the lack of requisite skills. “This, underscores the need for all hands to be on deck to ensure that as many Nigerians as possible are equipped with relevant and contemporary skills. “The amendments are equally pertinent, when you consider the recently released 2022 World Population Prospects by the Population Division of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs that projected that Nigeria’s population will hit 216 million by Nov 2022, and 375 million by 2050. “Therefore, if necessary measures are not put into place by empowering this youths with skills for employability and entrepreneurship, the socio-economic problems that we are currently contending with in the country will conceivably escalate. ” An amendment of the act will enable ITF to expand its infrastructure to be able to accommodate as many Nigerians as possible that are willing to acquire skills for the national growth and development of the country”. Other stakeholders like the Trade Union Congress (TUC), Nigeria Union of Teachers ( NUT) , Nigeria Labour Congress ( NLC) , Nigeria Investment Promotion Commission ( NIPC) , Nigeria Association of Small and Medium Enterprises ( NASME) amongst others in their separate presentations supported the amendments proposed in the bill.The Chairman of the Committee, Sen Adetokunbo Abiru ( APC -Lagos) said the amendments sought in the ITF Act, were necessary towards making Nigeria move with global trends given the needs for globally competitive skills in the labour market.He said the ITF was in the process of addressing the absence of skills by Nigerians to take up some expatriate employments, giving the raising population in the country.Abiru said there was need for an improved training of Nigerians to meet the global skills required to compete in the labour market, hence the call for amendment of the act.According to him, the ITF over the years have contributed to the Industrial development in Nigeria.He, however, noted the urgent need for ITF to be reinforced to provide needed training to equip Nigerians with required skills to compete locally and globally in the job market.He said technical and vocational knowledge was not enough at the moment, saying that there was need to upscale and invest in human capital development via provision of digital and Information Technology (IT) related skills to Nigerians.He urge the ITF to ensure the provision of global competitive training to Nigerians in their skills acquisition centers across the country.He said the Senate would consider the inputs of stakeholders on the bill to enact a legislation in the best interest of Nigerians.The President , Nigeria Association of Small and Medium Enterprises, (NASME), Mr Ajisefinni Tajudeen said there was need for the proposed new ITF act to provide for the establishment of Its training centers in the 774 local governments of the nation.(NAN)
