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Ari: At 50, ITF Has More to Offer Nigeria
As the Industrial Training Fund (ITF) turns 50 in a few days, the helmsman, Sir Joe Ari, in this interview with Seriki Adinoyi recounted the laudable achievements of the Fund over the years. He however said ITF is not about to relent as it has more to offer to Nigeria.
As the Director General of ITF, your administration will on the 26th of September turn five years on the saddle. What is your assessment of the journey so far?
Let me start by thanking God almighty for seeing us through in this journey that, to me, can be captured as interesting and equally challenging. In the next few days, my administration will be marking its 5th year in office, having clocked the first term last year. That would mean that my management will have three more years to go in the saddle in charge of the affairs of operations of the Industrial Training Fund (ITF).
Looking back, we have every reason to give thanks to God. When we came in, the ITF was at the brim of collapse, there was industrial disharmony among the workforce, our stakeholders were not satisfied with our service offerings, so it was both internal and external crisis. But being an insider, we hit the ground running, unveiled a lot of policies and visions, because for me, a leader is meant to give the direction as the saying goes, “there can be no soldiers without a commander, just as there can be no commander without soldiers.” So it is a mutual and beneficial journey. Although, change is constant, we are not fully satisfied with the way or position the ITF is occupying because we believe that we have a lot more to offer this nation by a way of service to our father land and as contributions to the economy. So five years down the line, I would say that a journey that was seen as insurmountable and challenging has today, become a milestone and a household name in the eyes and minds of the Nigerian people.
You have been here at the ITF as staff, and as Director, before you became the DG. Tell us how the Fund has evolved into what we have today.
As an insider, I had the privilege of heading the public affairs, administration and human resources department, cooperate planning department, business training development department, and serving as the chairman research committee and management. I have a fair knowledge of the enormous responsibility of this great institution. As soon as my leadership was unveiled by President Muhammadu Buhari, we needed a kind of document, a blueprint that would guide us and carry all the workforce along and we unveiled the ITF reviewed vision and in that vision, we had strategies for the actualization of the very robust mandate of the ITF and in identifying and drawing up such strategies, we were able to demarcate it along the line of short, medium and long term goals.
Since the establishment of the ITF almost 50 years ago, the ITF evolved from a single office in Lagos when it was a directorate in 1971 to what it is today. We have 45 offices; 40 area offices with vocational wings and 5 training centres as of today. That is why we pride ourselves as an agency with the most expansive network amongst most agencies of the Federal Government. We developed the ITF first training policy and its human capital base and implemented its first training program at the inception. With time, we realised that the management training program that the ITF was carrying out needed restructuring, taking into cognizance of what would be beneficial to the Nigerian society. We felt that there was a need to be shoulders above those we train, being the foremost training organization in Nigeria and one of the best in the world. And we realised also that Technical-Vocational Education and Training (TVET) was a trend, we had to refocus and this was embedded in the reviewed vision.
Unemployment remains a major bane of Nigeria’s development. What is the ITF doing to cushion the shock of this unemployment?
In the phase of challenging unemployment and the growing number of the poor, nations all over the world have resorted to skill acquisition and use it as a vehicle for equipping their citizenry with competitive skills for entrepreneurship and employability. The reason is simple, for even the over 36 intervention programmes we have introduced, we discovered that one intervention program gives birth to both direct and indirect jobs, and placing it alongside the impossibility of acquiring or getting paid employment, skill acquisition becomes an answer to the absence of white collar jobs. The reason being that you provide skills to learn, the person becomes an employer of labour by bringing people who are categorized indirect jobs created and add value to the economy, they become employers on their own. Leaving youths without skills or manpower will create a lot of vices such as banditry, kidnapping and prostitution. So, there’s need to address unemployment through the acquisition of skills amongst others. It is for this reason that ITF sees skill acquisition as a universal currency of the 21st century and most sustainable vehicle for job creation as well as poverty reduction.
What feedback mechanism do you use to assess how benefactors of your skill acquisition programmes are doing out there?
ITF as a result of its training capacity and network has been able to identify through research and used facilities such as the tracer studies, a tracking system that follows up on beneficiaries. After training the beneficiaries, we are able to use the tracer studies to identify where they have been settled, and what they are doing, and to a large extent, how far they have gone in their trade. ITF has a symbolic relationship with its trainees by introducing some of them to certain loan facilities with the Bank of Industry. Together with the tracking system we have come to realize that 80% of our trainees set up immediately, or have paid employment, and are employers of labour.
How has the ITF contributed in the Federal Government economic diversification?
ITF has contributed in drawing up the NIRP document, a major contributor of the economy recovery plan, a member of the national skill council headed by the Vice President as chairman, and member of the NISME council and even the survival fund as the chairing committee to actualise the stimulus plans of the Federal Government.
The government has been able to identify the important role of the institution in translating its policies to concrete realities. That was the reason the Vice President in 2019 gave the ITF the Star Partner award of the Federal Government. The government has since keyed into providing skills to Nigerians, meaning that it accepts the position of the ITF as the direction to go to equip Nigerians with the requisite skills. For me, the institution has paid its dues and completely demonstrated support and solidarity to the Federal Government.
What is the ITF doing about its staff welfare and development in terms of training?
In the reviewed vision, industrial harmony was one of the key aspects we have focused on. We had three major approaches to our process of program delivery; one was to heal wounds because of the restiveness within the organization to institutionize love to the system. Secondly, we needed to engender peace and develop the workforce to a level where they will understand, and thirdly, work as onto God, meaning that we were going to be responsive and responsible citizens in terms of our application of our God’s given talent to advance the mandate of the ITF. We also ensured that the conditions of the service where congenial enough, and conducive workforce to strive. Implementing these policies have brought about peace; no industrial unrest, and there have been harmony amongst us, promotions have been given out every year and salaries has been paid without delay.
What will you say has been the major challenge facing the ITF?
While we have made remarkable progress, we are also faced with some challenges. We have three major challenges; the fact that the awareness for the importance of skill acquisition is not yet accepted deeply into the minds of Nigerians, there is need for it to be included into the curriculum of Nigeria’s educational system. Secondly, lack of harmonization of skills amongst agencies of government as well as the private sectors. We need to come together as we are working at cross purposes yet, we are aiming at the same goal. Harmonizing will address some of the issues we see today. Thirdly, we face the issues of finance- Technical vocational training is capital intensive. To build and equip an industrial center is in billions. Even with the 1% paid by employers of labour are reimbursed by almost the 50% of the 1%, so what remains is minimal and may not meet our goals and desires. Finance is a key factor in establishing more training centers not just in the six geo-political zones, so as to escalate skills acquisition across the country.
Where do you see the ITF in the next 10 years?
I believe that with what we have done, ITF is well grounded and only need other people to come and consolidate. It has done considerably well in actualizing its mandate with what we have put in place, i.e with the building blocks and machineries, I believe the ITF is well poised to take the lead in matters of human capital development in Nigeria. In the next 10 years, I see an ITF that has answered its name as a leading learning and development agency that Nigerians depend upon at actualizing the building of our economy and adds core values in taking Nigeria to the top across the globe, and an institution that competes favourably with government agencies worldwide.
The President is determined to lift out 100 million Nigerians out of poverty, how will ITF skills acquisition programme help in complimenting this effort?
The ITF has made subject to the government on the need to create 19 million jobs and we took four sectors construction, agriculture, transportation and manufacturing. If one agency can create 19 million jobs and other agencies contribute to it, then we will meet the goal of 100 million.
19 million will be direct jobs created, leading to an additional creation of indirect jobs. ITF was among the sectors engaged by the government when the council was set up. We gave the council the ‘know-how’ to arrive at the 100 million jobs. Our submission has been taken in, and we hope that the government will study it and come to a reasonable conclusion where the ITF will be a party to the realization of this laudable government policy.
