As part of bilateral relations with Nigeria, German Development Agency (GIZ) has entered into a working agreement with three technical centres in the country with a view to training and empowering 1,500 Nigerian youths for construction works within a year.
The training and empowerment of 1,500 artisans with the required power tools for the construction industry, mainly wood, concrete and metal works, are part of ongoing 1,500 projects initiated and undertaken in 120 countries of the world by German Development Agency (GIZ).
Speaking during the inauguration of a steering committee and handover of power tools to beneficiary institutes, Ibrahim Ali, adviser on skills development at GIZ,said that the exercise was in continuation of technical trainings designed and overseen by GIZ for Nigerian construction, agricultural and automotive industries, which tend to boost employability in the country.
Ali said that GIZ had earlier trained 60 artisans selected from three beneficiary institutes and technical partners, namely, Shelter Watch Initiative (SWI), Millard Fuller Foundation (MFF) and Peter Akinola Foundation (PAF), who were also expected to step down the technical trainings and empowerment to their members using GIZ technical manual and power tools supplied.
He explained that the project, which was designed to fight youth unemployment in Nigeria, targets young job seekers of age 15 to 35 and people interested in skills acquisition and development who would be trained by 60 artisans earlier trained by GIZ with a view to producing 1,500 artisans within a year of training.
He, however, noted that each beneficiary institute would train 500 artisans which bringing the total trainees to 1,500 at the end of the programme, saying that the power tools distributed to the institutes should be handled with care as routine audit would be carried out on them.
Also, David Kornemann, manager of C. Woermann Nigeria Limited, one of GIZ technical partners, said that the exercise was divided into a theoretical and practical module, adding that C. Woermann was not only supplying the power tools for these technical centres but serviced the tools for them whenever required and would also be part of tools audit.
He said that the empowerment of Nigerian young job seekers and artisans would boost activities in the construction industries thereby improving on the employability of young Nigerian job seekers and employees of micro-small and medium enterprises in accordance with GIZ objective.
Responding on behalf of the technical centres, Segun Olutade, chief executive officer of Shelter Watch Initiative (SWI), lauded the GIZ, C. Woermann and other technical partners for designing such a programme which tends to fight youth unemployment, saying the beneficiaries are ready to step down the trainings in their various centres and achieve 1,500 artisans target within a year.
RAZAQ AYINLA, Abeokuta
