The federal government has mapped out strategies to annually empower at least five million Nigerians with various artisanal skills.
The government has also embarked on training 500 inmates in all the correctional custodial centres across the country, even though the beneficiaries will be granted N500,000 to start a business after the training.
Speaking with newsmen on Wednesday in Abuja, Abiola Arogundade, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Technical, Vocational, and Entrepreneurial Education, said the initiative aimed to reduce the number of Nigerians living below the poverty line to 133 million.
She explained that the initiative, which entails collaboration with various countries and educational and financial institutions in the country, would expose beneficiaries to the acquisition of artisanal skills that would not make them self-reliant but would be a source of earning the country much-sought-after foreign exchange.
Arogundade explained that her outfit had already embarked on a train with at least 500 inmates in each correctional centre across the country, which aligned with the objective.
She said, “We’ve also started training in the correctional centres. We launched the scheme in Kuje. We took a few members from my office to the correctional centre to audit the inmates’ needs. I’m happy to announce that we started conducting the assessment and auditing of the trainees. And I am happy to announce that every person we train there will also be certified.
“They will not be left behind. It’s the same curriculum that we have, and we are partnering with global bodies to make sure that any skill you acquire in Nigeria is going to be recognised worldwide. We are also happy to announce that we have secured it for every single person in training.
“At the end of their prison term and our training, we give each of the beneficiaries N500,000 to set up their businesses so they don’t become a second-time offender at a correctional centre. This scheme is ongoing.
So after Kuje Correctional Centre, we are moving to Suleja. We will try and duplicate this intervention in all our correctional centres nationwide.
“There are two dimensions to the training, we will be training artisans to build, and we are going to employ them. We are also training the beneficiaries. For example, if you are going to be a hairdresser, we will train you on how to have the best skills in hairdressing. We empower you with the kiosk. Not only that, the kiosk will have three streams of income. You can use the kiosk for your main skill, which in this case, as I mentioned, will be hairdressing. You can also use it for POS businesses and other ventures.
“So we are partnering with the bank. They will supply the POS. You can also use it to charge phones. We are using that as a multi-purpose intervention for three streams of income, which we are launching today. We will be giving it out to the beneficiaries after we train and certify them.
“We also want to announce that we will be starting the programme, which we call MYTV videos. Online, we told people to send a one-minute video on what their skills are. Once you upload your video, we train you. We are happy to announce that we got over 10,000 entries, and we are at the stage where we are picking 2000 people to go through the free training. Part of the curriculum of the free training for your assessment is to write a business plan. Those who write a good business plan will be granted N500,000 to continue and upscale their business.
“We are also working with the Bank for Industry. We are working on something called training for industries. Like I said before, our methodology is backward integration, so we are working with the Bank of Industry to work with the private sector, and we are training people to make sure they have the right skills that the industries are looking for. So we have started that assessment as well.
“We have had meetings with different ambassadors. So what we are trying to do is work with multinationals. Sometimes they complain about our citizens not having the skills.”
Speaking on the idea of introducing compulsory skill acquisition for secondary school leavers, the presidential aide said: “I am in talks with the Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Polytechnic, Vocational and Technical Schools. We have been talking about how to introduce one skill for senior secondary school so that you graduate with one skill and even get certified. We started doing some research, so it’s something we think is important. It’s still a work in progress.”
While revealing its collaborations with the Bank for Industry (BoI), Industrial Training Fund (IDF), Presidential Amnesty Program (PAP), National Board for Technical Education (NBTC), the private sector, and others, Arogundade revealed an ongoing program, “The Unlock Programme,” aimed at empowering youths and guiding them in creating commercial and sustainable businesses.
She said, “We told people to send a one-minute video on their skills. Once they upload the video, we will train them. We are happy to announce that we got over 10,000 entries, and we are at the stage where we are picking 2000 people to go through the free training. Part of the free training curriculum for your assessment is to write a business plan. Those who write a good business plan will be granted N500,000 to continue and upscale their business.”
