Executive vice chairman and chief executive of the National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI), Prof Mohammad Sani Haruna said the agency is training Nigerian youths in cutting edge technologies to prepare them for the fourth industrial revolution.
He said since the world is shifting to automation remote sensing, remote control and wireless operation, Nigerians cannot be left behind.
He said Nigerian professionals and artisans need regular updates of skills to remain relevant, get employment, remain employed or even create jobs for others.
Haruna made the submissions at the opening of NASENI Skill Acquisition Training and Youth Empowerment for 100 candidates in Ilaro, Ogun State.
Haruna, who was represented by NASENI’s coordinating director, finance and account, Alhaji Ibrahim Baba Dauda said Ogun State was chosen because of its location. He also noted that the state is the industrial corridor for innovations.
He said the state also shares borders with Lagos which is West Africa’s most populous productive and manufacturing centre. He however said the world was fast changing and Nigerian youths ought to be part of the fast pace.
He said: “Development in cutting edge technologies or frontier technologies are the innovations that are shaping the fourth industrial revolution. They are no doubt disrupting many things and introducing constant changes and standards.
“These technologies include Artificial Intelligence (AI); Robotics; the Internet of Things (IoT); Big Data; Block Chain; Additive Manufacturing (3D Printing); Autonomous Vehicles; Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, Gene Editing; 5G Network; and even Smart Grid and agitations for wireless electricity. Every aspect of human endeavour, agriculture, health, industry, transports, hospitality and others require electricity albeit well advanced Electric Energy.
“Therefore, electrical installation, repairs and maintenance will no longer be metre conduiting, piping or trunking of cable channels and streaming overhead conductors only. It is beyond provision of lighting points and socket outlets.
“Rather it is about automation, remote sensing, remote control and wireless operation. The practitioners’ knowledge needs either regular updates to remain relevant and be able to get employment, remain employed or even create jobs for others.
“This training is therefore to familiarise the trainees not only on the current advances of new and emerging technologies in electrical installations, repairs and maintenance, but to also prepare, equip them and build adequate competencies to meet the challenges and opportunities of the development anticipated of the shape and nature of the next Industrial Revolution.
On the choice of Ogun State, he said: “By its location, the state is the industrial corridor for innovations because it bothers Lagos which is the West Africa’s most populous productive and manufacturing centre and a viable link to the outside economic worlds.
“Therefore, preparing the youths and their skills in modern methods is a veritable strategy to open them up to rare opportunities of being ahead of others in this region in terms of skills, practical exposures to new tools, including trouble shooting which this training will give to them at the end of the one-week long exercise.”
In his remarks, the national vice president of Licensed Electrical Contractors Association of Nigeria (LECAN), Yinka Akintomide urged the participants to make use of the knowledge and tools given to them by the organisers of the training.
“Some people call you roadside electricians, but you will prove them wrong with this training you are getting here today.” he said.
The Olu of Ilaro and paramount ruler of Yewaland, Oba Kehinde Olugbele appealed to the beneficiaries not to sell the working tools given to them.
He said the gadgets would be useful both in their trades and the training of other youths in the community.
On her part, a former deputy governor of the state, Alhaja Salimot Badru said lack of required skills has made youths to lose jobs to foreigners. He said the NASENI skill acquisition programme would address the dearth of skills among the youths.
The chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance, Senator Olamilekan Adeola said the programme was a product of the executive-legislative collaboration aimed at building cognate capacities and improvement in skill of the youths in the energy sector.
Adeola who was represented by his Chief of Staff, Kayode Odunaro, said the training was an addition to his “numerous facilitations of various skills acquisition training and empowerment that had over 10,000 beneficiaries across Lagos and Ogun State.”
He said: “This presidential initiative through NASENI is a veritable way of creating a pool of skilled professionals that would not only be gainfully employed but have potentials to equally generate employment for others in due course. The other benefits of the programme beyond employment are curbing youth restiveness and other vices that crop up with youth idleness and disenchantments.”
