Kunle Adelabu
-Initiatives part of my prosperity, empowerment agenda – Prince Ladega, Chairman
The new Chairman of Ikorodu Local Government, Prince Adedayo Ladega has started executing his electoral promises with youth empowerment through practical and sustainable skill acquisition and development by partnering the Industrial Training Fund (ITF), a federal agency to upskill and upgrade the Skills Acquisition Centre along Borokinni Dada Road, Ikorodu popularly called, “Fashola’s School”.
According to him, the initiative is an integral part of his prosperity promises to a greater number of Ikorodu residents.
To achieve this, the Executive Chairman on Saturday, visited with the Director – General, Industrial Training Fund (ITF), Dr Afeez Oluwatoyin Ogun, on an inspection tour which signalled the kick – off of the Ikorodu Local Government administration’s partnership with the ITF, in not only upgrading the centre but to practically engage the youth and make them self – reliant.
By next week, the face-lifting of the entire compound is expected to begin, while the upgrading of the departments will also kick – off with the Fashion & Design Department.
The executive chairman, Prince Ladega, speaking with THE IMPACT after the tour, said that he has done his research and has blue prints on how to execute his administration’s promises which include youth empowerment which is part of the prosperity that he pledged.
“My message to the youth is that I promised them prosperity, good jobs, empowerment and here we are trying to ensure that we deliver on that.
“We are creating empowerment. I am doing my job and I don’t shout when I do my job and how I empower my people. I have done my research and I have met with the ITF DG. I have done my research with different other people and this is just one of the things that we have in the pipeline. When the time comes, I’ll reveal others to you.
“The ITF DG has promised me that he is going to come to our rescue because we want to empower our youth; we want to encourage them and train them,” Prince Ladega said.
The Chairman said that the focus on youth empowerment is to prepare youth in Ikorodu city for the future and make them compete with their counterparts anywhere with skills.
“I have been assured by DG that there are other benefits for the trainees after their programmes. He said that once they finish training them, they will also be empowered and those that are with good skills, and willing to travel abroad will be supported.
“Ikorodu is a city not a town and we want to change the face of what we have and that is why I am doing my work underground and doing my research on how to empower the youth and how to improve youth engagement,” he added.
The ITF DG, Dr. Ogun, who is visiting the centre for the second time, also speaking, said that the initiative of the Chairman, Ikorodu LG which is up-skill and upgrade the centre is part of the mandate of the ITF as charged by President Bola Tinubu.
He added that the centre when fully upgraded for operation would assist in taking youth off the street and get them meaningfully engaged.
“We are not just up-skilling, we are also taking our youth off the streets. We have come here to collaborate with the new Chairman of Ikorodu Local Government and today, we are here touring the facilities.
“Mr. President has given us the mandate to skill up all artisans and to also bring Nigerian youth to learn skills, either educated or not. They should come and learn skill because this was how China started; how South Korea started and you know our President is a man of hope and a man that thinks faster than you can think of. He Has given ITF the mandate to do this and this is exactly what ITF was created for.
“There are several trade areas here – we have fashion designing, electrical, computer and others here. These are areas that ITF is interested in.
“ITF is going to take charge of the management. We are going to make sure everything runs properly because it is our work in ITF and youths of Ikorodu Local Government would be kept busy. We thank God that we have the full collaboration and cooperation of the new Chairman of Ikorodu Local Government. He has promised that when I come next week that I will not recognize this compound again. He will have changed the whole face of the compound.”
Dr Ogun also revealed to THE IMPACT that his agency will be bringing more equipment into the fashion designing department which is the phase one of the upgrading of the centre and also experts to repair and service existing equipment.
“Within the week, we are going to start. They have some equipment, but we are going to bring in more and we are going to fix some of the equipment that are already bad. We are going to bring people within the week to fix them because this is part of the Renewed Hope Agenda of Mr. President,” he assured.
Speaking on post training opportunities, the DG ITF said that they have programmes of engagement for the trainees to ensure that they are productively engaged and sustained.
“After training them, we have three exits for our programmes. The first exit, we are collaborating with the Manufacturer Association of Nigeria (MAN) and Nigeria Employers Consultative Association (NECA). All their members who are also contributing employers to ITF, are going round looking for spaces because we will train these people up to international standards and obtain international certification and also give them license to practise in Nigeria. Then, once we have done that, then we start looking for outlets/jobs for them. This is one we call 8 to 4 jobs.
“Secondly, President Tinubu is not asking those who are below 35 years old and are interested in traveling, not to travel; but he’s saying that they must “japa” (travel out for economic opportunities) with skill. We want them to “japa” with skill that is recognized internationally, not the skill that’s just from the backyard.
“We are collaborating also with the Chamber of Commerce through NACCIMA, all around the world, such that we have a conduit pipe between Nigeria and these countries. We are going to be asking them the areas of skill that they need, if their needs are tailors, welders, auto mechanics, or electricians among others, and, our people already have international certification, which would make it easy for them. This is what we are doing for many countries. This is the new “japa”.
“Then, the third exit is business incubation. Gone are the days when after you train people, you give them what we call start -up packs, which they usually collect with their right hands and sell with the left. Often times, the same people that train last year would come back again this year because they know that they would collect start -up packs and sell again, but now, we are focusing on incubating businesses.
“How we want to do that, we don’t want to reveal it to anybody. We don’t want to reveal our formula to anybody,” ITF DG said.
