About 450,000 Nigerians have been trained under the various vocational training programmes of the Industrial Training Fund (ITF), in the last three years.

ITF was established to regulate training standards, offer direct training intervention in industrial and commercial skills training and development using a corps of highly competent professional staff, modern techniques and technology.

At a presentation of the Fund’s 2019 skills intervention programme in Abuja, the Director-General, Joseph Ari, insisted that skills acquisition remain the most viable and sustainable solution to the rising unemployment and poverty in Nigeria.

Ari said it is worrisome that efforts to reduce unemployment in the country are yet to yield better results.

He said: “The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) Report in the last Quarter of 2018, said it all. According to the Report, the number of Nigerians without jobs between the 4th Quarter of 2017 to the 3rd Quarter of 2018, increased from 17.6 million to 20.9 million. This is despite the fact that the number of people in employment increased from 68.4 million in the 3rd Quarter of 2015 to 68.72 million in the 3rd Quarter of 2016, and to 69.09 million in the 3rd Quarter of 2017 and 69.53 million in the 3rd Quarter of 2018.”