By Emmanuel Addeh
The Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) in collaboration with the Industrial Training Fund (ITF) has completed the training of 255 Nigerian youths in nine vocational programmes.
They were trained in hospitality and tourism, mobile phone repairs and troubleshooting, information and communication technology and electrical/electronic technology.
Other focus areas of training included industrial automation and mechatronics, instrumentation and process control, mechanical services and maintenance, residential air-conditioning as well as refrigeration maintenance and building technology.
Executive Secretary of the NCDMB, Mr. Simbi Wabote who spoke at the graduation ceremony in Abuja, explained that the trainings were carried out as part of the board’s 10-year strategic roadmap, which targets among other things to create 300,000 direct and indirect employment for Nigerians.
Represented by the Director, Planning, Research and Statistics, NCDMB, Mr. Patrick Obah, the executive secretary stated that the board had trained over 10,000 youths and committed over nine million man-hours in the trainings.
He stated that this was with the understanding that exposing youths to skill acquisition programmes will provide them with the necessary skills required to support activities in the Nigerian oil and gas sector and the wider economy.
Wabote stressed that the training programme confirmed the commitment of the federal government to improving the country’s economy by equipping youths with the requisite skills for entrepreneurship, especially now that the world is facing a global pandemic.
“The training programme was designed to address gaps in vocational and entrepreneurship skills among Nigerian youths, drive self-employment and value creation in the oil and gas industry and linkage sectors, address youths redundancy and loss of the economic value of human capital needed to drive economic growth and diversification.
“It will stimulate and strengthen the linkage between the oil and gas industry and other sectors of the Nigerian economy, complement and intensify the federal government`s commitments and efforts towards job creation and diversification of the Nigerian economy,” he stated
In his remarks, the Director General of the ITF, Mr. Joseph Ari urged the trainees to take full advantage of the opportunity that was provided by the training to not only put food on their tables but to also make meaningful contribution to the Nigerian economy.
He charged them to put the start-up kits they were presented to judicious use and never to contemplate selling them.
