By Franklin Alli

The Bank of Industry (BoI) is to provide funding support for artisans from Industrial Training Fund (ITF) and Vocational Skills training centers under the Federal Government’s National Industrial Skills Development Programme, NISDP, said Professor Longman Sambo Wapmuk, Director General of ITF.

Based on this, Wapmuk has charged graduates from its training schools form themselves into cooperatives and register with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), Self-Regulatory Organisations (SROs) and Business Member Organisations so that they can access BoI’s loans not as individuals, but cooperatives in order to their own businesses.

Earlier, Ms. Evelyn Optutu, Managing Director, BoI, said for the bank  to give out loan to cooperative society, prospective borrowers need to present and convince the bank on the viability of their proposals with assurance to pay back their loans as at when due. The bank also insists on 10 percent committee fee of the total amount of the loan wanted from the bank by cooperative society.

Wapmuk explained that after trainees have acquired skills from the Fund, they are further retrained by the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency (SMEDAN) and are referred to the Bank of Industry for funding.

He projected that by the end of this year, the Fund would have trained over 37,000 Nigerians, adding that in the past one year alone, atotal of 10,000 youths (1,000 each) from the selected states and the FCT, were trained in the first phase of the programme which commenced on December 3, 2012 and ended in March, 2013.

“The second phase of the programme commenced on June 3, 2013 with the following states: Adamawa, Akwa Ibom, Borno, Edo, Enugu, Gombe and Kogi States. Others include Kwara, Niger, Kaduna, Katsina, Ogun, Ondo and Sokoto states.

“The remaining states of the federation are being covered in the third phase of the programme. This means that before the year runs out; all the 36 states and FCT will be covered. In order to sustain the training and to succeed as entrepreneurs, graduates of the NISDP will require funding.

“It is our belief that the NISDP will positively impact the current fight against unemployment as majority of graduates of the programme will start-up their own businesses, while some will be employed in various sectors of the economy, thus readily becoming potential members of various (BMOs),” he said.

On collaboration with local and international stakeholders, he disclosed: “ITF is currently partnering with SENAI, Brazil; ITEES, Singapore; Galilee International Management Institute (GIMI), Israel; Crown Agents, UK; and Productivity Standard Board (PSP), Singapore. Locally, , in conjunction with the Nigerian Employers Consultative Association (NECA), set up a Technical Skills Development Programme (TSDP) that runs in five facilities of NECA member companies including the Peugeot Automobile Nigeria, Kaduna; Niger Dock, Lagos; OCO Industries, Port Harcourt; Nigerian Breweries Plc, Ibadan and the Fund’s ISTCs in Ikeja and Kano.  to high demand of its graduates, the programme has been expanded to include A.G. Leventis Agricultural School, Ilesha, and Kamjay Farms, Lekki, Lagos which commenced training for the year 2013.  ”