Unemployment: Give More Attention to Informal Sector, IDEAS Consultant Tells Nigerians

 

Mr Musa Abdul, the National Apprentice Consultant, Innovation Development Effectiveness in the Acquisition of Skills (IDEAS) Project, has called on Nigerians to give more attention to the informal sector in order to tackle the challenge of unemployment.

Abdul made the call in an interview with SkyNews at a Master Craft Sensitization workshop on Tuesday in Makurdi.

He lamented that the Federal Government (FG) had been spending so much in the formal education sector without a corresponding result.

“Despite the huge sums and attention given to the formal sector it had not been able to address substantially the challenge of unemployment.

“The level of unemployment keeps increasing year in year out. This means that the result is not been achieved, hence the decision to sensitize and train people to acquire skills with certificates in their trades.

“If really Nigeria wants to overcome the problem of unemployment, it should invest so much in the informal sector or have a paradigm shift or paradigm inclusiveness of the informal sector,” Abdul said.

He said that he had very high hope that if that was done the issue of unemployment would become a thing of the past.

The Executive Secretary, National Board for Technical Education (NBTE), Prof. Idris Bugaje, disclosed that it was necessary for artisans to have certification in their various trades because things were changing.

Represented by his Special Assistant, Malam Bashir Bello, Bugaje said that with their certificates in their trades they could go outside to look for greener pastures and they would be engaged.

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“But where you do not have a certificate but you have trade you might be denied employment for lack of certificate. Nigeria is seriously lagging behind in this aspect.

“We have come to realize that the informal sector is what actually drives the economy. If we want our youth to be gainfully employed we need to concentrate on the informal sector and not formal sector.

“All we need to do is to certify them. Give them certificates. If they are lacking in one or two components train them to acquire knowledge in those components so that they can be certified in order to give us quality service.

“This will help them even if they migrate to other continents they will be gainfully employed because they have skills and their skills are well certified,” Bugaje said.

Also, the NBTE Director South East Zone, Engr Ngozi Okelekwe, disclosed that to determine the competence of the artisans, they must go through assessment, stressing that the assessment would be done by certified Quality Assurance Assessors.

“During the assessment the artisans work will be assessed both internally and externally. We expect one hundred per cent perfection from them before they will be issued certificates.

“What the person can do is usually included in the certificate and if you turn the back of the certificate you will see the units he achieved,” Okelekwe said.

 

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