The Director General of the Industrial Training Fund (ITF), Sir Joseph Ari, has identified lack of requisite skills as the reason why over 23 million young Nigerians cannot fit into job vacancies in different sectors of the country’s economy.

Ari stated this on Thursday in Abuja at ITF’s second national skills summit which had the theme: “Institutionalising Apprenticeship and Traineeship for National Development.”

According to Ari, “The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) Q4 2020 Report on Labour Force Statistics, Unemployment and Underemployment showed that the number of unemployed persons in the economically active or working age was 122,049,400.

“Out of this number, 69,675,468 were willing to work, but only 46,488,079 were in paid employment. What could be inferred from the survey was that over 23 million Nigerians that were perhaps qualified and willing to work were without jobs, which also showed the unemployment rate among the youths (15 to 35 years),” he said.

The ITF DG explained that, “A skills gap assessment of six priority sectors of the national economy conducted by the ITF in collaboration with the United Nations Development Organisation (UNIDO) revealed that rather than the absence of jobs, vacancies still exist in several sectors of the national economy that either could not be filled by Nigerians because of the lack of requisite skills or were being filled by foreigners.”

He added that the ITF, through the national industrial skills training for youths, women and physically challenged and other empowerment programmes had trained and empowered thousands of Nigerians in different sectors of the economy.

He said this year’s summit would focus on deliberations to institutionalise apprenticeship in tackling Nigeria’s rising unemployment.

Earlier in her address, the Minister of State for Industry Trade and Investment, Amb Mariam Yalwaji Katagum, said the summit was relevant to discuss the challenges and prospects of apprenticeship in creating employment opportunities in the country. (Daily Trust)

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