iCreate Africa to host “The Builders Show” to revolutionise the construction industry

iCreate Africa will be hosting its annual 6th edition competition themed “The Builders Show,” which is aimed at revolutionising the construction industry. The event is set to take place from June 1–3 at the International Conference Centre in Abuja.

Founded in 2018, iCreate Africa is a skill development hub that prioritises technical skills as a global currency by empowering and addressing the societal perceptions affecting youth participation in technical skills through competitions such as plumbing, masonry, tiling, electrical wiring, furniture, etc.

However, this year’s sixth edition of iCreate is tailored to address the huge skill gap in the construction industry. The event will feature the African Construction Skills Competition, modelled after the Olympics, featuring teams from Togo, Nigeria, Benin, and Ghana competing for a cash prize of $10,000, endorsement deals, and all-expense-paid trips to the World Skills Competition.

The founder and chief executive officer of iCreate, Bright Jaja, said during the press conference in Lagos that the builder show is dedicated to the construction workforce and aimed at addressing the challenges facing the construction industry in Africa, particularly in the areas of skills development and capacity building.

“The Builders Show is a construction skills competition aimed at rebranding the trade professional, given the profile and recognition of trade professionals in the consumer industry. Our goal is to create a new class of influencers that will inspire young people to embrace careers in trade, thereby curbing youth unemployment in Nigeria,” Jaja said.

“In addition to the competition, the Builders Show will also include exhibitions, workshops, and awards. We believe that this event will have a significant impact on our society, particularly in terms of job creation, and closing the skills and competency gap in the construction industry.”

Jaja added that the event will demonstrate the full range of innovation capabilities, and this is where practical solutions are presented to address ecological challenges on a global scale.

He also noted that the show is an excellent opportunity for the artisans to realise their hidden potential and take the next step towards materialising entrepreneurship.

In his address, the Head of Projects at GIZ, Tobias Wolfgarten, said that while there are many young people without jobs in the country, and there is also a tremendous amount of untapped potential in the area of skills needed in the labour market.

Wolfgarten said, “Our mandate is to support youth in Nigeria to find decent employment because we also want to bring people into jobs where they are properly paid and can build a life. So how do we do that? Our project has two main thematic areas one is Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET), where we look at improving the quality of TVET training trainers by doing organisational development with training centres, equipping training centres, and making sure they can run sustainably. We train managers of training centres and also have government authorities run these training centres.

“Then we have a second pillar, which we call employment promotion, and employment promotion is about matching both the supply side of the labour market and the demand side because this is what I always call a labour market paradox,

“We have a tremendous youth unemployment rate of more than 40% plus underemployment, and at the same time, we have companies that are desperately looking for qualified staff, and this is normally on the medium level of qualifications is plumbers, electricians, and hairdressers, These are the kinds of jobs that we need, and this is where we come in with our activities of matching both sides.”

Also speaking, the country business director of Bosch, Samson Ajayi, stated that the engineering company that makes mechanical parts is collaborating with iCreate to empower users with quality, affordable tools for the competition, train them on how to use the tools, and make them know that you can use one tool to achieve more than one output.

The Managing Director, of Berger Paints, Alaba Fagun, in her address, said that partnering with the organisers was to build reputable artisans and to make them build products and showcase new visions because the business world was evolving.