ITF  to empower youths

 

The International Training Fund (ITF) has reaffirmed its commitment to escalate the provision of skills to youths to compete globally.

Worried over the level of the youth who are migrating for greener pastures abroad, ITF said Nigeria must make the best use of them to generate the much-needed foreign exchange.

He called on the Federal Government and stakeholders to join hands to bridge the skill gap.

Speaking during the inauguration of ITF Ikeja Area Office in Lagos, the Director- General, ITF, Sir Joseph Ntung Ari, said the office was constructed to boosts skills provision, particularly to the youth.
“We are lucky that the young population forms the larger part of the 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 said.

According to him, over 500,000 young men and women had been empowered with employability skills over the past five years.
His words: “Our administration was ushered into office in September 2016, but as at 2021, we were able to equip over 500,000 young men and women with the requisite skills and the numbers are going up by the year. The ITF is one institution that is very concerned about monitoring its trainees to see how they are faring.”

He said this was part of the efforts of ITF not only to 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.
Ari said when he assumed office, many of these facilities that had either been inaugurated or about were abandoned, in some cases, for several decades, adding that the management set about finding ways to complete the abandoned structures for reasons aforementioned.

“Our determination to expand infrastructure was informed by the fact that Nigerians have become increasingly aware of the importance of skills acquisition as a pathway to sustainable internally generated revenue are on-going and nearing completion,” he stressed.

He noted that the plan of the ITF management is to train and send trainees for internship at the recently purchased Jossy Royale Hotel in Jos being remodelled, stressing that the aim is to increase the number of Nigerians with requisite skills.

He urged Nigerians, especially government agencies and others to collaborate with ITF to equip Nigerians with requisite skills.