Nigeria to create 3.5m jobs in three years

The Federal Government has said it would continue to work hard towards achieving the National Industrial Revolution Plan of its transformation agenda, in line with vision 20:2020.
To this end, the National Industrial Skills Development Programme, launched recently, is expected to train and develop a highly skilled workforce for small and medium scale enterprises across Nigeria.
The Director General of Nigeria’s Industrial Training Fund, Prof. Longmas Wapmuk, disclosed this in Gombe, Gombe State at the flag-off of the skills acquisition programme for the state, where 1,000 youths have been recruited to undergo three months training.
In a message, Wapmuk said the skills acquisition programme would improve the economy, especially the manufacturing, agro-allied and construction sectors.
Furthermore, he said the country’s youths will now be empowered thus taking them away from restiveness and other vices.
The Gombe State Commissioner for Youth Empowerment and Poverty Alleviation, Labaran Mijinyawa, who represented Governor Ibrahim Dankwambo at the occasion, pledged the state government’s support for the programme, which he said would produce entrepreneurs for the country.
Mijinyawa said: “The need for sustained effort by all stakeholders; ITF, State Governments, SMEDAN and the Bank of Industries cannot be over emphasized. On its part, the Gombe State Government is ready to support in every way possible. ”
Alhaji Inuwa Sama’ila, the Industrial Training Fund’s Area Manager for North-East, said the National Industrial Skills Development Programme intends to achieve government’s desire of training 3.5 million youths within three years for employment.
Sama’ila said: “The NISDP programme is the Federal Goernment’s initiative to address the problems of unemployment and youth restiveness and idleness.The aim is to create 3.5 million jobs between 2013 and 2015. In Gombe State alone, we want to train 1000 youths in three trade areas; tilling, POP and welding fabrication, with the aim that after undergoing this training, they will become self employed.”
The Fund’s Head of Training for North-East Zone, Khadija Mudi, said of the process for the selection of candidates for the training: “The selection was done in collaboration with ITF and the State Governments. While issuing out the forms, we made sure that all stakeholders were involved. We have an incentive that the Federal government has given. Each of the trainees would receive N5000 at the end of each month. This is just a stipend. That is why we are calling on their sponsors and the well to do in the society to also contribute their quota.”
Ten thousand youths were trained under the first phase of the programme in December last year, while 14,000 have been recruited for the second phase and 12,000 would be trained in the next phase.