Companies under the umbrella of Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA), have allocated one percent of their annual profits to Industrial Training Fund (ITF)’s Skills Acquisition Scheme.

Director General, NECA, Mr. Segun Osinowo, disclosed this, while fielding questions from journalists in Lagos, recently.  This commitment, he said have been ongoing since 2009.

“Ordinarily, we should not have been involved in equipment donation but the situation of our country compelled us to initiate the projects to try and make technical and vocational skills available in Nigeria  .  The whole idea of this project is to showcase it as model that government can adopt.”

According to him, if the Federal government must achieve its set goals of becoming one of the top twenty economies by the year 2020, there was urgent need to address the dearth of technical and vocational manpower in the economy, hence, NECA and ITF decided to come together to train Nigerians in technical and vocational education.

“NECA member companies are committed to the success of scheme and had set aside 1 % of their profit after tax, to support Skills Acquisition Programme,” he said.

On donated electrical, electronics and telecommunication equipment to Federal Science and Technical College, Yaba, Chairman, Governing Council of ITF, Alhaji Bode Oyedele, said it was to boost manpower training, as technical colleges are the bed-rock of manpower development in any economy.

He, enjoined the school authority to use the equipment to facilitate teaching and learning skills of the students in electrical electronic engineering craft and telecommunication so as to prepare them for a better tomorrow.  Principal of the school, Mr. Michael Ofor, lauded the two organisations for supporting the college, saying 40 pioneer students have been carefully selected for the scheme.

“On our part, I want to assure that we are equally determined to ensure the success of the project.  The instructors are poised to discharge their duties in line with best practices.”

“It is hoped that with this programme now fully in place, the status of the college will not only rise tremendously but that the dream of the country to be ranked among the twenty industrialised economies in the next nine years will be realisable,” said Ofor.