In a bid to reposition the economy, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has directed the Industrial Training Fund (ITF) to upgrade the skills of no fewer than twenty million artisans within the next five years.

ITF’s Director General, Mr Afiz Oluwatoyin who spoke at the corporate headquarters of his outfit in Abuja explained that the initiative was aimed at ensuring that artisans in the country can compete favourably with their peers abroad.

Oluwatoyin maintained that the President Tinubu-led administration is bent on reversing the ugly trends whereby well-skilled and equipped artisans from abroad take up local jobs meant for artisans in the country.

According to him: “You see, in the past, nigerian artisans have been operating like illiterate, like low-level people. When you go outside, you find out that artisans are up there. In some countries, they earn more than the professors.

“You can’t pay. If you are not strong enough financially, you may not be able to pay them. They are well respected. When I came down here, I saw people from other countries taking up jobs. Of course they have the right to, we have the International Labour Organization and labour law which permits them. But found out that Nigerians were no longer giving fellow Nigerians job.

“People from other countries taking up our jobs, they have the right to, but it should be a big market that nobody should be pushed aside.

“Then, as I was thinking of this, the UN assembly came and our president, with the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, launched a program, the national talent export program. They want to export our talent. We want to scale up nigerian artisans, want to upgrade nigerian artisans.

“We don’t want quackery in Nigeria again. We want standard artisans that can stand up anywhere in the world and measure. We want to upgrade Nigerian artisans to international standard. Nigerians all over the world, we all know are best at what they do.

“But without enough knowledge, the disgrace will be coming back home to us, which we already seen little by little from some countries.

“But we cannot scale up artisans without carrying along the artisan association. That’s why today we have decided to bring you in to introduce you to this program to tell you what we have for you. Because without you, the program may not succeed because you are the landlords.

“We would want register everybody, then we begin to categorize. When we categorize, we set up training in training centers, both within ITF and private training center. The president has given us the mandate to upskill 5 million artisans in the first year.

“The next year, another 5 million. So in four years, we are to upskill 20 million artisans. So the artisan will come in. ITF cannot handle everything. We have some training centers, also private centers in the country, we are going to certify. We are going to look at them.” (The Guardian)

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