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Gyang Bere, Jos
The Director-General of Industrial Training Fund (ITF), Joseph N Ari, said the Fund disbursed N2,094,407,000 in student and supervisory allowances under the Students Industrial Work Experience Scheme (SIWES) in 2019.
Ari disclosed this yesterday in Jos, the Plateau State capital, during the 2019 ITF merit award ceremony held at the ITF headquarters.
“In the year under review, ITF disbursed N2,094,407,000 as students and supervisory allowances; of this N1,645,454,000 as students allowances to 142,462 students from 325 tertiary Institutions and N448, 953,000 was paid out as supervisory allowances,” Ari said.
He noted that despite the challenges confronting the Fund, ranging from under appropriations in the face of the soaring number of participants as a result of the establishment of new institutions, the Fund remains unwavering towards handling the situation.
He added that the Fund has equipped Nigerians with technical skills to take over existing vacancies in the country that are being filled by non-Nigerians.
He further noted that a skill gap survey shows that there are vacancies in the area of services, agriculture, construction and transportation while Nigerians do not have the technical skills to do the job effectively.
“A skills gap survey of six priority sectors of the national economy, which was conducted by the ITF and United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), showed that vacancies existed in four sectors: Services, Agriculture, Construction and Transportation that were in some cases being filled by non-Nigerians because of the absence of Nigerians with the requisite technical skills.
“To prepare Nigerians to effectively take over these sectors, beginning from 2016, the Fund initiated a number of skills acquisition programmes particularly targeted at these sectors.
“Through these programmes, thousands of Nigerians who are today earning sustainable livelihoods as paid employees or as entrepreneurs that are even employing others were equipped with skills in diverse trades.”
Ari said that the Fund in 2019 expanded the scope of its programmes for the benefits of Nigerians and trained over 11,100 Nigerians across the 36 states of the federation in 8 trades areas.
The DG explained that as part of efforts to encourage employers to train their workers, the ITF paid N6,602,688,147 as training reimbursement to 566 companies that made the criteria for the reimbursement.
Plateau State Governor Simon Lalong, who was represented by the Commissioner of Special Duties, Jeremiah Jerr, said Plateau will continue to train its citizens for employability and entrepreneurship with the ITF.
He said the ITF is more organised and focus under Joseph Ari in fulfilling the mandate and vision of President Muhammadu Buhari on wealth creation and poverty reduction.
