Nigeria’s economic growth may depend not only on its ability to create jobs but also on how effectively it equips its workforce with the skills required to secure employment and build sustainable businesses.
With millions of Nigerians engaged in informal trades and apprenticeship-based occupations, the Industrial Training Fund is seeking to close the gap between practical experience and recognised professional competence through expanded skills training, certification and entrepreneurship initiatives.
Since assuming office as Director-General and Chief Executive of the ITF, Dr Afiz Oluwatoyin Ogun has placed greater emphasis on employability, productivity, skills certification and the formal recognition of vocational expertise.
The strategy is particularly significant given the statutory responsibilities of the ITF, which include promoting skills acquisition, establishing training standards and assessing and certifying vocational competencies.
Ogun has disclosed that the Fund has trained and empowered more than 25 million Nigerians in different skills over the years, with the interventions designed to improve beneficiaries’ capacity for employment and self-reliance.
One of the most prominent initiatives under the current direction is the Skill-Up Artisans Programme, designed to address the longstanding challenge faced by artisans whose expertise is acquired through informal apprenticeship without recognised certification.
Under SUPA, practising artisans are identified and assessed based on their existing abilities before undergoing further training aimed at improving their technical, entrepreneurial and professional competencies.
The programme also exposes participants to areas such as project management, occupational health and safety, ethics and patriotism, in addition to technical and business development training.
The foundation phase produced 29,000 graduates in 2024, while another 100,000 trainees were targeted in the subsequent phase. Screening was conducted across the 90 senatorial districts, alongside the assessment and accreditation of training centres.
Beyond basic training, the ITF is also seeking to give Nigerian artisans qualifications that can be recognised outside the country.
More than 7,000 artisans were undergoing international certification examinations across 27 states and 28 centres in August, with the ITF putting its investment in the exercise at over N700m. A pilot phase had earlier been conducted in Abuja for more than 200 artisans.
The certification is expected to provide a more credible means of establishing artisans’ competence while improving their chances of securing formal contracts and employment opportunities in Nigeria and other countries.
The Fund has also turned attention to trainers, recognising that expanding skills development requires a larger pool of qualified instructors and assessors.
In August, it began an eight-week training programme for 100 artisans and trainers with the involvement of trainers from the United Kingdom. Participants are being trained in their trades as well as in teaching, training and assessment.
Those who successfully complete the programme are expected to obtain Trade Level 3, teaching and training, as well as assessor qualifications.
The initiative could create a multiplier effect by equipping experienced artisans not only to practise their trades but also to train and assess others to recognised standards.
The ITF’s partnership with the Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association also seeks to connect vocational training directly with employment and enterprise development.
Through the Technical Skills Development Project, participants receive classroom instruction, practical training, industrial attachment and entrepreneurship development across numerous trades.
The programme has reportedly empowered more than 8,000 young people annually across over 30 trade areas, with about 80 per cent of graduates either securing employment or venturing into entrepreneurship.
For skills development to have a meaningful impact on the economy, however, training must produce more than certificates. Beneficiaries must be able to secure jobs, attract customers or establish businesses capable of surviving beyond government intervention.
That appears to be the direction of the 2026 SUPA cycle, for which the Federal Government approved N3.6bn for a business incubation component targeting about 200,000 artisans.
The initiative is expected to provide structured business support and equipment to qualified beneficiaries, moving beyond the conventional distribution of starter packs that has characterised some empowerment programmes.
The broader objective is to combine technical competence with equipment, mentorship, access to markets and professional standards, all of which are necessary for artisans to establish sustainable enterprises.
Nigeria’s skills challenge, however, remains enormous.
With a large youthful population, persistent unemployment and shortages of skilled workers across several industries, vocational and technical education may have to move from the margins to the centre of the country’s economic development strategy.
The range of trades covered by ITF-NECA programmes illustrates the demand, with areas including electrical and electronic maintenance, welding and fabrication, information and communications technology, mechatronics, plumbing, construction, solar installation and refrigeration.
The emerging focus of the ITF is therefore not merely on increasing the number of people who pass through training programmes, but on converting Nigeria’s large pool of informal expertise into a certified and productive workforce.
If sustained and transparently implemented, the approach could strengthen small businesses, supply industries with competent workers, reduce reliance on imported technical skills and create alternative pathways from unemployment to productive livelihoods.
Ultimately, the success of the skills drive will not be determined by the number of trainees enrolled or certificates awarded.
Its real test will be whether beneficiaries secure better jobs, establish viable enterprises, increase productivity and achieve sustainable incomes.
That is the point at which Nigeria’s investment in skills development will translate from training statistics into measurable economic transformation.
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