ITF to Train 9,000 Youths in 18 States – NISDP

The Director-General of the Industrial Training Fund, Sir Joseph N. Ari, has disclosed plans by the fund to train 500 youths each in selected 18 states across the country in a new phase of its National Industrial Skills Development Programme (NISDP).

Ari made the disclosure in a statement made available to Daily Trust in Lagos on Monday.

The DG stated that the NISDP‎ was one of President Muhammadu Buhari’s initiatives in the areas of job and wealth creation, industrial growth and sustainable development‎ which ITF was actualising.

“As part of the contribution to the actualisation of the initiative, the Industrial Training Fund (ITF) will commence the next phase of the National Industrial Skills Development Programme (NISDP) on 1st March, 2017.

“Under this phase, the programme will provide requisite employable skills to 500 Nigerians from each of the 18 states of the federation that have been earmarked to benefit from the programme. The states are Akwa-Ibom, Bayelsa, Benue, Edo, Ekiti, Enugu, Gombe, Imo, Jigawa, Kano, Kebbi, Kogi, Ondo, Osun, Oyo, Rivers, Taraba and Yobe,” Ari said in a statement.

The ITF boss further noted that the trainees will undergo training in over 30 trades and crafts including tailoring and fashion design, paint making, bead making, plumbing and pipe fitting, farming, confectionery, welding and fabrication, Information Communication and Technology (ICT), electrical installation, carpentry and wood work, cosmetology, GSM repairs and Plaster of Paris (POP), among others.

“Under a tripartite arrangement between the Industrial Training Fund (ITF), Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) and Bank of Industry (BoI), trainees will be provided hands-on vocational and entrepreneurial skills, as well as modalities for business financing,” the statement ‎read.

Ari appealed to the governments of the benefitting states and other stakeholders to partner with the fund for the actualization of the initiative, explaining that they could do that through the provision of starter packs to the trainees in their various states, so that they could set up and eventually become entrepreneurs.

The statement revealed that since its flag-off, the programme has trained 84,100 Nigerians in diverse trades and crafts, adding that in 2016 alone, the NISDP trained 10,100 Nigerians in diverse skills, including 1,100 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Maiduguri, Borno State.