It is with immense pleasure that I welcome you to the end of year/half year report of the Governing Council of the Industrial Training Fund. The report is meant to give account of the stewardship of the Governing Council to the media in the last six (6) months following the inauguration of the present Council. Our Council recognizes the media as critical partners in nation building, hence this occasion.
Firstly, we give appreciation to God who has made it possible for us to journey this far. We also express our deep gratitude to the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, His Excellency, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan GCFR, for finding the current members of the Council worthy to be appointed as agents of the President’s transformation agenda.
For the avoidance of doubt, the Council has representation from sectors that are relevant to the growth of the economy. The sectors are Industries, Trade & Investment, Education, Labour & Productivity, National Planning, Budget Office of the Federation, the Organized Private Sector under NECA, MAN and NACCIMA.
Gentlemen, although most of us here are conversant with the Fund, I believe it is imperative to restate its history and mandate.
The Industrial Training Fund was established 42 years ago, precisely on October 8, 1971 by Decree 47 of 1971 (now an Act of the National Assembly). It is a Federal Government Agency under the supervision of the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment with the mandate to:
• Provide, promote and encourage acquisition of skills in industry and commerce with a view to generating a pool of indigenous trained manpower sufficient to meet the needs of the national economy.
• Provide training for skills in Management for technical entrepreneurial development in public and private sectors of the Nigerian economy.
• Set training standards in all sectors of the economy and monitor adherence.
• Evaluate and certify vocational skills acquired by apprentices, craftsmen and technicians in collaboration with relevant organizations.
• Manage and administer on behalf of government, the Students Industrial Work Experience Scheme.
May I also reiterate that Council is on course to discharge its duties in the area of providing policy direction for the Fund in line with the above mandate.
With its inauguration on 27th May, 2013, the present Council quickly swung into action where at its inaugural meeting we carried out a SWOT analysis of the Industrial Training Fund as an organization. We painstakingly studied the mandate given to us by the enabling Act and thereafter came to the following conclusions:
• Council found out that the strength of the organization lies in its extensive and expansive network comprising 32 (thirty two) Area Offices and 3 (three) Industrial Skills Training Centres, the Model Skills Training Centre in Abuja and the Centre for Excellence in Jos. Council also discovered that the workforce was constituted by staff with vast expertise and experience. We also found out that the organization has a robust legislation suitable to leverage on human capacity training. Council was also to immediately realize that the ITF is a key catalyst for the nation’s economic growth through the development of a skilled human capital.
• Council discovered that inadequate funds to carry out the policies and programmes of the Fund to realize its avowed mandate was its major weakness. In addition, the bureaucratic tendencies inherent in the system stood in the way of rapid execution of its policies and programmes.
• The recent amendment of the ITF Act has presented a great opportunity for the growing of Funds which we believe will result in the realization of the organization’s mandate to its full potential.
• The failure of the organization to work as a quasi-commercial entity poses a real and present threat to the realization of its objectives.
Having examined the organization as it were and identified its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, Council felt well equipped to proceed with drawing up a robust policy direction for the organization.
2. HANDS ON THE PLOUGH
In the preparation and formulation of policies that will place the organization on a sound pedestal to realize its objectives, Council felt the need to define a vision that will make the ITF move away from a mentality of a bureaucracy to adopting a business-like approach in its operations.
To put this vision in place, Council constituted three (3) committees namely:
• Finance and General Purposes Committee
• Training and Research Committee
• Staff Welfare Committee
The Governing Council gave a new focus with emphasis on Technical and Vocational Education. Council felt a compelling need to channel its energy mainly towards promoting and encouraging this area having recognized that this is the foundation to the growth of any economy. We studied and recognized that the BRICS nations, as they are known, have recorded tremendous growth in their economies using technical and vocational education as a critical pivot.
Council decided to leverage on the Brazilian model by encouraging an earlier initiative built by the current Management Team led by the Director General, Professor Sambo Longmas Wapmuk OON, with SENAI, Brazil, an institution with almost the same vision and mandate with the ITF. SENAI has been a very strong partner with the Government of Brazil as well as a potent catalyst in the building of the Brazilian economy through the provision of first and world class vocational and technical education across the entire nation of Brazil.
May I be quick to add at this moment that it is a sad commentary on our nation that up till this moment in our life as a nation, skilled workforce is still imported into our country from other parts of the world, particularly from neighbouring countries. It is our avowed commitment at the ITF, especially as a Council, to stem this development.
In the area of Funding, Council encouraged Management to take full opportunity of the enabling Act to grow Funds in order to aid the execution of policies and programmes of the Fund. Every staff member, in addition to their duties, was given with the additional role of a marketer for the organization through the method of discoveries, amongst others. Council is leading this charge, by example, by going beyond call to be the Chief Marketer of ITF.
Council also studied the budget of the Fund and directed that the overhead expenditure profile be cut down in certain areas that were not critical to fulfilling the organization’s mandate so as to free funds for training and capacity building.
Council also ensured that it cleared all the backlog of staff promotions in conjunction with the in house Staff Unions and Management. We are currently at the completion stage of the process of promoting Deputy Directors to the cadre of Directors. I make bold to state that these exercises have helped in removing disenchantment in the system and instilling a lot of confidence and vitality in the system.
The Governing Council right from the onset realized the critical need to promote harmony between Council and Management. Essentially, the objective was to promote collaboration and synergy as well as to build teamwork for the overall good of the ITF system. Council therefore organized a joint Synergy Workshop for Council and Management. Effectively, this helped in developing a profound understanding of teamwork and the need to always emphasize collaboration between Council and Management on the one hand and amongst members of both bodies on the other.
3. ITF AND THE NIGERIAN ECONOMY
It must be emphasized that ITF is a key partner in the Transformation Agenda of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. ITF remains a key component of the Federal Governments programmes aimed towards wealth creation and poverty reduction in the country. This is essentially why the Fund has always encouraged and promoted partnership with different institutions both within and without the country to achieve these set objectives. Such partnerships and programmes between ITF and SMEDAN, BOI, NISDP and SENAI are very instructive. Council is desirous of ensuring that the vision of providing quality technical and vocational education to Nigerians for self sustainability through its programmes is urgently achieved.
To this end, the Council will wholly support Management’s efforts to establish 37 Industrial Skills Training Centres, one in each State and the Federal Capital Territory, 6 Centres of Advanced Skills Training for Employment (CASTE) for skills broadening and up-grading. This is apart from Sector-Specific Skills Training Centres that are also contemplated to cater for skills needs of Manufacturing, Agric-Agro Allied, Construction, and other critical sectors of the Nigerian economy.
In each of the 46 Centres, training will be offered in 25 Trade Areas. Each of the Trade Areas will enrol 25 trainees in line with international best practices for effective “hands-on” learning. The process will generate a total of 29,875 readily employable graduates annually. These numbers can be increased by running 2 or 3 streams of training. Hundreds of construction workers, Instructors, Administrators and other personnel that will be employed for the Centres will contribute greatly to reduction of unemployment in the economy.
These Centres, when combined with the Automobile Training Centres that will take off next year, and the Mobile Workshops that are being imported, will place the Industrial Training Fund on a firm and solid pedestal for it to effectively discharge its mandate.
Despite these strides, a country with a size, population and aspirations like our dear country, Nigeria, require a minimum of 500 well-equipped Skills Centres to effectively carter for thousands of Nigerians desirous of acquiring skills and these might require an investment of over N500b (Five Hundred Billion Naira Only). It is against this backdrop that I appeal to the Federal Government to create a separate budgetary sub-head for Skills Acquisition just as has been done for other relevant National Institutions.
It is also in the same breadth that I urge all employers of labour that are liable under the ITF Amended Act to meet their statutory obligation by promptly remitting their contribution. Although, responses to the Act have considerably improved, a greater percentage of potential contributors are still not remitting. The provision of necessary infrastructure for skills acquisition is a capital intensive and very expensive venture, which will be made easier if everybody fulfills their obligation.
5. CONCLUSION
Council is poised to ensure that ITF cooperates and collaborates with government in its bid to transform the economy through job creation. We view this as a mandate that is sacred and sacrosanct. It is why we have, in the last six months, been able to reshape and recreate our policy direction to this end. However, I wish to humbly add that our modest efforts are only a work in progress. I therefore earnestly appeal to the Fourth Estate of the realm to lend support to us as critical partners to the ‘Nigerian Project,’ which we are desirous to achieve. We lack the capacity to achieve this alone.
Thank you and may God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Ambassador Musiliu Obanikoro is the Chairman of the Governing Council of the Industrial Training Fund.