The Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, has started discussions with the Industrial Training Fund, ITF, in furtherance of the Commission’s training and skills acquisition programmes for Niger Delta youths.
Speaking during a visit to the ITF Area office in Port Harcourt, the NDDC Interim Administrator, Mr Efiong Akwa, stressed the importance of manpower development in the quest to transform the Niger Delta region, noting that the Commission placed a lot of premium on industrial development and human capacity building.
A Press Release signed by the Director of Corporate Affairs, Dr Ibitoye Abosede, said that Akwa was represented by the Special Assistant on Youth to the Interim Administrator, Engr. Udengs Eradiri, accompanied by the NDDC Deputy Director Commercial and Industrial Development, Sir Daniel Ajunwa.
The NDDC Chief Executive Officer expressed confidence that a partnership with the ITF would help to improve the skills and entrepreneurship capacity of youths in the Niger Delta region.
According to him, “world-class training facilities are necessary to enhance the knowledge and skills of youths to be able to attend to today’s challenges.”
He remarked: “when you train a child the right way he doesn’t depart from it”
The NDDC boss said that the Commission was making efforts to grow the skills of the youths locally rather than take them abroad for training, noting: “We think that because of the growing economy of the Niger Delta and Nigeria, it is important that we begin to grow our own skills to be better able to manage our economy.
“We believe that the real resource of any country is not its minerals but the young men and women of the country.”
Sharing her thoughts at the meeting, the Area Manager of ITF, Dr Kemi Abayeh, said her organization was ready to kick start world-class training programmes in welding and fabrication, spraying, tiling and other craft to a professional level.
She said that ITF was placing emphasis training Nigerians in technical skills that would reduce the dependence on foreigners hired to come the region to perform the tasks.
Dr Abayeh declared that ITF was introducing a system of using mobile training trucks, which could train over 30 persons at a go, to reach many communities in the Niger Delta.
She said that the meeting would bring about the required partnership to help develop and improve ITF skill centres for the training of the teeming youths of the region.
