ITF is also set to host the first-ever National Skills Summit to revive the manpower sector and change the face of training, skills development, job creation and entrepreneurship in Nigeria.
ITF Director-General/Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Juliet Chukkas-Onaeko, made this known while receiving the Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Investment Promotion Council, (NIPC), Mrs. Uju Hassan-Baba, in her office in Abuja.
Mrs. Chukkas-Onaeko said the agency was mindful of President Muhammadu Buhari’s disposition towards youth empowerment and job creation to address unemployment, pointing out that ITF has realigned some of its activities to enable it drive change in that direction.
She said capacity building for women entrepreneurs is one of ITF’s areas of focus, noting that the fund would also continue to train women and youths in book keeping, business decision making and identification of markets for products.
Pledging to broaden the synergy for manpower development, particularly in the non-oil sectors, Mrs Chukkas-Onaeko and Hassan-Bada noted that the collaboration was critical to effective local skills acquisition and manpower development for driving diversification.
According to Mrs Chukkas-Onaeko, ITF is shifting focus from dependence on oil.
She said with its abundant manpower deposits, Nigeria could become one of the most industrialised nations in the world.
ITF, she said, has raised a business training team that can handle the training of women and youth entrepreneurs. ITF, she said, has over 1,000 trainers that provide services in basically all sectors of the economy.
Mrs Chukkas-Onaeko stressed the need for local skill development in other sectors of the economy that are of comparative advantage to the country.
Empowering women, she said, was critical to ITF’s agenda as well, adding that both agencies have agreed to collaborate on capacity development for women entrepreneurs along the agricultural value chain.
