FG Mulls Nationwide Audit of Skills Centres to Transform Workforce

•Shettima wants urgent action to bridge nation’s skills gap

Deji Elumoye in Abuja

Vice President Kashim Shettima has called for immediate and united action to close Nigeria’s widening skills gap, describing it as a national priority critical to economic transformation.

That was as the federal government hinted at a proposal for the review of existing skills training centres across several Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of government to align their work and functions with national development goals.

Shettima, who spoke on Thursday during the sixth meeting of the National Council on Skills (NCS), at State House, Abuja, stated that the council’s mandate was to develop a strategic workforce capable of meeting Nigeria’s evolving economic demands.

“What binds us together supersedes whatever divides us. We have to make this country work. We need to fill in the skills gap,” he said.

The vice president pointed out that the council had a mission to strategically position Nigeria’s workforce to meet the demands of a rapidly evolving economy.

He stated, “This council was established with a clear mandate to drive the strategic development of the skilled workforce that can contribute meaningfully to national growth and prosperity.”

Shettima described the session as an open forum where positions were aired and important decisions were taken, emphasising that stakeholder engagement, consensus-building, and decisive leadership were essential to fixing Nigeria’s skills and employment crisis.

A major highlight of the meeting was the proposal for a National Skills Infrastructure Audit to create a centralised database of all training facilities, verify their functionality, and identify gaps or overlaps in infrastructure.

The council stated, “The government’s policy trajectory is to strengthen human capital development for national growth and industry through skills development. However, unless the skills infrastructure across MDAs is optimised, this vision will remain unattainable.”

The audit will also involve physical verification of centres and a detailed cataloguing of operational training facilities, ensuring alignment with national occupational standards and labour market needs.

Minister of Housing and Urban Development, Ahmed Dangiwa, earlier made a presentation on the National Artisan Skills Acquisition Programme (NASAP), an initiative aimed at training 10,000 artisans annually in high-demand construction trades.

The programme was designed to formalise Nigeria’s informal artisan sector by providing certification and on-boarding qualified artisans onto a Digital Artisan Marketplace.

Dangiwa said, “The overall goal of NASAP is to establish a reliable and competent artisan workforce to drive the ministry’s housing and infrastructure agenda while empowering Nigeria’s youth with employable skills.”

He stated that NASAP sought to tackle youth unemployment while simultaneously addressing the skilled labour shortage in the construction sector. He added that it was projected to have a significant impact on both job creation and long-term infrastructure development.