FG begins skills training for 18,000 artisans, unemployed youths

The Federal Government has launched a nationwide vocational and skills acquisition programme for more than 18,000 artisans and unemployed Nigerians, with training set to begin on Tuesday at 229 accredited centres across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory.

The initiative, being implemented by the National Social Investment Programme Agency, aims to equip participants with vocational skills, entrepreneurship training and trade-specific starter packs to promote self-employment and reduce poverty.

Speaking at the programme’s inauguration in Abuja on Monday, the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction, Dr Bernard Doro, said the initiative aligned with President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda of moving vulnerable Nigerians from dependency to economic self-reliance.

“One of the key reasons why we are doing this flag-off is to ensure that over 18,000 Nigerians are empowered through skill acquisition so that they can get into that pathway from vulnerability to self-sustainability,” the minister said.

He explained that the two-week training programme is targeted at Nigerians who already possess basic vocational knowledge and require additional technical skills to become more productive.

“The beneficiaries are people who have acquired some sort of soft skills already. They will be up-skilled and then given tools so that they can begin to trade with them,” Doro said.

The minister assured that the ministry had established a robust monitoring and evaluation framework, including a digital tracking system that would monitor beneficiaries and the starter packs distributed after the training.

The National Coordinator and Chief Executive Officer of NSIPA, Badamasi Lawal, said the programme would be implemented through accredited government technical colleges, vocational institutions and approved training centres across the country’s six geopolitical zones.

According to him, participants will be trained in 14 vocational trades, including automobile technology, agriculture, baking and confectionery, carpentry, catering, electrical installation, fashion design, plumbing, welding, masonry, hospitality, jewellery making, grinding machine operations, and vulcanising.

Lawal said beneficiaries would also receive entrepreneurship training covering business management, financial literacy, digital literacy, customer relations and enterprise sustainability before receiving trade-specific starter packs.

“Successful participants will receive trade-specific starter packs to facilitate immediate business start-up,” he said.

He explained that beneficiaries were selected through what he described as a transparent and inclusive process involving the National Assembly, state governments, traditional rulers, religious leaders, community development associations, youth and women groups, persons with disabilities and other stakeholders.

According to him, priority was given to unemployed youths, women, vulnerable persons and economically disadvantaged Nigerians with the capacity to establish sustainable livelihoods after the programme.

Lawal said the initiative was conceived partly to address the growing challenge of youth unemployment and to utilise thousands of vocational starter packs that had remained unused in government warehouses due to administrative and operational bottlenecks.

He noted that prolonged storage had led to equipment deterioration and mounting warehouse costs.

“Rather than allowing these public assets to depreciate, the Federal Government approved their refurbishment, deployment and distribution to qualified beneficiaries after practical skills training,” he said.

Lawal added that the programme would also put thousands of vocational starter packs that had remained unused in government warehouses into productive use, warning beneficiaries against selling the equipment because all distributed items would be digitally tracked.