The International Training Fund (ITF) has reaffirmed its commitment to escalate the provision of skills to Nigerian youths in its bid to compete globally.
Worried over the level of the young population relocating out of the country for greener pastures abroad, ITF said, Nigeria must make the best use of its young population to generate the much needed foreign exchange for the nation, calling on the federal government and relevant stakeholders to join hands and bridge the dearth of skill gaps in the country.
Speaking on the sidelines of the commissioning of ITF Ikeja area office, the director general, ITF, Joseph Ntung Ari, said the essence of the commissioning is to ensure that it escalates the provision of skills to the Nigerian people particularly the young population.
“We are lucky that the young population forms the larger part of the Nigerian population unlike other parts of the world, but when this young population is not put to positive use, we will be sitting on a time bomb. Time has come for all of us to put our resources together as a team to be able to equip our young population with the needed skills for employability and entrepreneurship,” he advised.
According to him, so far, over 500,000 Nigerian young men and women have been empowered with requisite employability skills over the past five years.
The commissioning, he said, is part of the continuing efforts of ITF to not only expand access for more Nigerians to acquire technical skills by providing the enabling infrastructure, but also to enhance efficient and effective delivery of its services in line with its mandate.
He pointed out that, at the assumption of office of the incumbent management in the ITF, many of these facilities that have been commissioned or about to be commissioned were abandoned, in some cases, for several decades, adding that, the management found ways to complete the abandoned structures for reasons earlier aforementioned.
He noted that the plan of ITF management is to train and send trainees for internship at the recently purchased Jossy Royale Hotel in Jos which is currently being remodeled, stressing that, the aim is to escalate the numbers of Nigerians with requisite skills in different trade areas.
He appealed to Nigerians, especially, governmental agencies and other stakeholders to collaborate with ITF in its efforts to equip Nigerians with requisite skills.
Also speaking, the director general, Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), Segun Ajayi-Kadir, who said, unemployment crisis in the country is a serious issue, lamenting that, with over 70 per cent of youths unemployed, the nation is sitting on a time bomb.
“If we have an agency of government that is set up for improving skills and even adding to the number of people we employ, I think that could be a Key Performance Index (KPI) for government agencies in Nigeria and ITF will shine bright where it is being mentioned,” he noted.
He commended the staff and management of ITF for their efforts to making the job a lot easier for the Governing body of ITF to deliver on its mandate
