The Federal Government is planning to train about 1.2 million youths through the Federal Ministry Industry, Trade and Investment as part of efforts to combat unemployment. Governor Idris Wada of Kogi State disclosed this yesterday at the flag-off of the second phase of National Skill Development Programme, NISDP, in Lokoja, the state capital.
Wada said the programme was aimed at tackling the unemployment problem in the country.
The governor, who spoke through the Secretary to the State Government, Prof. Olagbemiro Jegede, explained that over 4,000 graduates had already been trained during the first phase of the programme. He said 14 states were participating in the second phase, adding that Industrial Training Fund, ITF, would train 1,000 in each of the participating states.
Earlier in his remark, the ITF Director-General, Prof. Longmas Sambo Wapmuk, said NISDP was designed to fast track the achievement of the Federal Government National Industrial Revolution Plan, adding that its main objectives were to provide skills to support industrial revolution plan, train and develop highly skilled entrepreneurial workforce for small and medium enterprises in the area where the country had competitive and comparative advantage.
He pointed out that the first phase of the programme started on December 3, 2012 where 10,000 youths were trained from Abia, Anambra, Bauchi, Bayelsa, Benue, Kano, Oyo and Plateau states as well as Abuja.
Wapmuk, who also spoke in Gombe through the Bauchi Area Manager of the ITF, Alhaji Inuwa Samaila, said the national industrial skills development programme was part of ITF mandate and policy of the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment which was a response to skill shortages indentified through studies conducted in 2012 by ITF and the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation, UNIDO.
The studies, he said, showed dire skill shortages in all sectors of the economy particularly in manufacturing, agro-allied business and manufacturing. In his remarks at the event, Governor Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo, urged participants to pay attention and learn the trades which would be beneficial not only to themselves but the society at large.
