NUC, World Bank encourage Centre to involve IDPs on capacity training

The National University Commission and World Bank have encouraged Sustainable Procurement, Environmental and Social Standards Enhancement Centre of Excellence (SPESSECE), to involve Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), in training to enhance their knowledge.

The Centre Leader of the SPESSECE, Prof. Mohammed Yunusa, disclosed this on Tuesday in Abuja, at a Stakeholders Forum, orgainised by the SPESSECE, Ahmadu Bello University, (ABU) Zaria.

Yunusa said that the SPESSECE was established in 2019 by the NUC in collaboration with the Word Bank.

He said that the centre was to bridge the knowledge and skill gap in the areas of sustainable procurement environmental and social standards education in the public and private sectors.

He said that the NUC and the World Bank had encouraged the centre to ensure that the IDPs and vulnerable groups were involved in capacity building training to help them acquire more knowledge.

“In all the training the World Bank and the NUC have encouraged the centre to note the IDPs and other vulnerable groups to enable them acquire more knowledge.

“The SPESSECE, ABU, through its training programmes focuses on building the capacities of professionals and practitioners in procurement, environmental and social standards.

“The drive is to train competent and skilled sustainable procurement, environmental and social standards practitioners in the public, private and civil society organisations,’’ he said.

Yunusa said that the beneficiaries of the training were equipped with appropriate intellectual and practical abilities and to display the right virtues, ethics of equity, discipline, commitment and transparency in the practice of sustainable procurement, environmental and social standards.

“The SPESSECE enjoins everyone to patronise our programmes because we have the best online teaching and experienced instructor.

He said that the centre is engaged with Master`s Degree in procurement management, sustainable environmental studies and social development studies.

He said that short executives courses in procurement management, sustainable environmental studies and social development studies were also available in the programme.

The National Project Coordinator of the NUC, Dr Joshua Atah, said that the programme was running out its time scheduled.

Atah, who represented the NUC Executive Secretary, Prof Abubakar Rasheed, said that the programme was a five year programme and meant to end in 2024 but has not yet implemented its mandates.

He said that COVID 19 pandemic and other obstructions affected the effective implementation of the programme.

He advised institutions on efficient training and retraining of people for exchange of knowledge and understanding among professionals.

Also, Director, Academic Planning and Monitoring, ABU, Prof. Muktar Bello, said that the centre was working hard to ensure that the programme was able to achieve its mandates.

According to him, we are far behind the rescheduling but we believe that we can do whatever possible to ensure that we achieve as much as possible.

The director said that the centre needs more support to enable the programme to get to a better level and can attain its goal, adding that the centre had established good relationships with relevant stakeholders.

He said that the essence of the collaboration with other stakeholders was to ensure that the progrgamme was sustained effectively.