Ibrahim Shuaibu in Kano
Kano State Governor, Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, thursday said arrangements have been concluded to employ a foreign expert to effectively manage the N5 billion Aliko Dangote Skills Acquisition Centre located at Gurjiya town in Dawakin Kudu Local Government Area, which will soon be launched.
Ganduje stated this when he inspected the centre, adding that Aliko Dangote has agreed to take the responsibilities of paying the salary of the foreign expatriate for six years.
According to Ganduje, the structure of the Centre, which has about 24 different craft departments, also cost about N2.5 billion.
He added that why he was employing an expatriate to manage the integrated skill centre for about three years was to imbibe the culture of prudent management so as to prevent the Centre from collapse.
The governor said CCTV cameras would also be installed for property security of the management, staff, students and the state-of-the-art equipment at the Centre.
He said: “You are most welcome to this Aliko Dangote Skills Acquisition Centre. The details of what we have here in terms of training and training facilities have already been explained by our technical team. But I, as a messenger of this project, will like to inform you of very critical issues pertaining this Centre.
“First of all, we are not just beating about the bush as far as this Centre is concerned. It has been established as a result of knowledge, research and investigation on what are the gaps that are existing in Kano State in terms of employment opportunities.
“So we have to commission a consultant to go round within the public and private sectors to see what are the trades that can be impacted on our youths, while employment will be automatic. They came up with 24 types of trades. We also found out what are the types of machines required and the type of building that is supposed to be done. So, there was a design after making classification on the type of machine.
Then the next issue is the ability to have the building and the ability to purchase the required machines, and we have already done that.”
The governor added: “The next issue is that of training. We are training young graduates and engineers on different fields considering what sections we have here. We are doing this so that they will be able to manage the Centre.
“Now, another important issue is management, which is very critical. Without good management, all that we have laboured here will go into the drain in a matter of years. You will just be finding carcasses of what we have here today.”
