Osinbajo to present start-up packs to 11, 000 ITF graduates
Kingsley Chukwuka, Jos
The Industrial Training Fund (ITF) has said that Vice President Yemi Osinbajo will on the April 4 at the Musa Shehu Yar’adua Centre in Abuja, present start-up packs to 11, 000 graduates trained by the fund under the National Industrial Skills Development Programme (NISDP).
The beneficiaries are drawn from across the country and are well equipped to succeed, owing to the fact that previous beneficiaries impressed the fund by being employers of labour.
In a statement released by ITF, Director General of the Fund, Sir. Joseph Ari stated that the start-up packs presentation and graduation ceremony will also be graced by the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Mallam Mohammad Bello; the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr. Okechukwu Enelamah as well as the Minister of state for Industry, Trade and Investment, Hajiya Aisha Abubakar.
“The decision to empower all the graduands with start-up packs was informed by revelations of the monitoring and evaluation of beneficiaries of earlier phases, which indicated that where the trainees were empowered with such support, almost 90 per cent ended up as successful entrepreneurs that were employing others.
“The ITF was committed to imparting skills acquisition to as many Nigerians as possible as it remains the most sustainable solution to the twin problems of unemployment and poverty reduction as government alone cannot provide jobs for all Nigerians,” Ari said.
He further disclosed that a study of six priority sectors of the economy, which the ITF conducted in collaboration with the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) revealed that despite acute unemployment, vacancies exist in the economy that cannot be filled or were hard to fill because of the absence of Nigerians with the required skills, adding that most of these vacancies were indeed being filled by foreigners.
He however, appealed to stakeholders, including state governments, non-governmental organizations and faith-based organizations to collaborate with the ITF in view of the vast number of unemployed Nigerians.
“Stakeholders that are desirous of collaborating with the ITF could sponsor additional trainees to ITF skills acquisition programmes in order for more Nigerians to benefit.
“Such sponsorship would entail the payment of master craftsmen, the monthly stipends of trainees as well as provision of start-up packs for such additional trainees,” he added.
