The Director General of

the Industrial Development Fund (ITF) Prof. Longmas Wapmuk, has said that the body has trained 10 million Nigerians in technical and vocational skills since its establishment 40 years ago.

Wapmuk made the disclosure while receiving Chief Samuel Ortom, the Minister of State, Trade and Investment, on Monday in Jos, saying that technical and vocational skills were necessary for the transformational agenda of President Goodluck Jonathan.

“For the transformational efforts and indeed, Vision 20-2020 to become a reality, greater emphasis has to be paid to technical vocational skills acquisition.

“Countries like Singapore, Malaysia and Brazil have taken this route to great results, and the ITF is desirous of herding Nigeria the way of these countries,” he said.  To achieve this, Wapmuk said the ITF was establishing 36 new skills training centres, 11 additional area offices, 11 mobile training units and a model ICT Centre.

The D-G said that the organisation had re-tooled and re-equipped its existing Skills Centres in Ikeja, Kano and Jos while the Lokoja Centre would be completed soon. According to him, the ITF is collaborating with overseas institutions in Israel, Brazil and the U.K., adding that collaborations with Singapore led to the establishment of the Model Skills Training Centre in Abuja.

He commended  President Jonathan for assenting to the amended ITF Act, saying that it would spur the Fund to embark on fresh initiatives that would generate employment, create wealth, reduce poverty and minimise youth restiveness. Wapmuk, however, regretted that the Fund’s quest to execute its laudable programmes was being hampered by dwindling resources arising from the lull in industrial activities.

He said that the Students Industrial Work Experience Scheme (SIWES) was draining ITF’s resources, appealing to the Federal Government to create a separate portfolio to administer the scheme like the NYSC.

The Minister said that the President was in a hurry to achieve maximum results within the shortest possible time and tasked the Fund to rise up to its responsibilities.

“There is no more time for excuses, experiments, paper work; but it’s time for action, translating all that we’ve been planning for the past 50 years to reality so that Nigerians can feel the impact.”  Ortom appealed to State Governments and graduates to avail themselves of the opportunities in the ITF to empower themselves with relevant skills that would make them self-reliant and employers of labour. “Time has come that it is impossible for government to give employment to all our teeming youths who are graduates and roaming the streets.

“But if skills are acquired, somehow, they will be put into use; I want to also use this forum to encourage Nigerians, who are out there in the streets, especially graduates, to make available themselves to the opportunities that we have in ITF,” he said.