ABUJA – Speaker of the House of Representatives, Dimeji Bankole, has urged standard training of students by the Industrial Training Fund, ITF, if the country must meet its economic goal of being one of the top 20 economies in the world.

“There is need to identify and explore other areas that can set training standards in all sectors of the Nigerian economy to make the country one of the industrialised nations of the world,” he said.

The speaker, who gave the task at a public hearing on ‘A Bill for an Act to Amend Industrial Training Fund’, organised by the House of Representatives Committee on Industry at the National Assembly yesterday, said the industrial sector was important for a sustained and meaningful economic growth.

Bankole, who was represented by the Chairman, House Committee on Rules and Business, Rep. Solomon Ita Enang, explained that strengthening of the ITF, which provides the bulk of techically trained manpower to meet the needs of the public and private sectors of the economy, would provide solutions to problems facing the industrial sector.

In his address, Prof. Longmas Sambo Wapmuk, Direcor General of ITF, told the Solomon Agidani-led Committee on Industry that the institute was still struggling to meet its objectives 40 years after its establishment, a tragedy, he said, had contributed to the poor economic situation in the country.

He noted that the proposed amendment on the Bill was expected to spur the ITF to perform optimally and assist industries in Nigeria to revive the Small and Medium Scale industry growth.

Prof Wapmuk explained that ITF has the capacity to complement Vision 2020, thereby setting the economy of Nigeria on fast lane of growth through thorough technical skills impartation and other capacity building programmes.

He called on other stakeholders including the Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association, National Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture, the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria and the organised Private Sector as well as higher institutions of learning to collaborate with ITF in order to initiate and implement policies that will contribute in improving human performance and productivity in the national economy.

Earlier, Chairman of the Committee, Solomon Agidani, noted that if strengthened, ITF had the potential to
facilitate the development of human resources for the country’s economic growth.

“As a foremost human development agency of government, it provides and encourages the acquisition of skills, industry and commerce with a view to generating a pool of indigenous trained manpower sufficient to meet the needs of the public and private sectors of the economy of Nigeria,” he said.