This news was culled from The Tribune’s publication of July 21st, 2022
THE Federal Government has secured a sum of $200 million credit facility from the World Bank to enhance the efforts at repositioning technical education in Nigeria.
Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu who disclosed this at a workshop put together under the World Bank sponsored project, ‘Innovation Development and Effectiveness in the Acquisition of Skills (IDEAS)’,said this was part of mesures Pto reposition technical education and reduce the high rate of unemployment in the country.
The workshop organised by the Federal Government in collaboration with the World Bank and held in Makurdi the Benue State capital was attended by officers from the Federal Ministry of Education, the National Board for Technical Education, Abia, Edo, Ekiti, Benue, Gombe, and Kano states as implementing agencies.
The programme was designed to enhance Nigeria’s skills development for formal and informal sectors of the nation’s economy.
Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu who was represented at the opening ceremony of the workshop by the national project coordinator, Mrs Blessing Ogwu, told stakeholders that the essence of the IDEAS project was to address the current deficiencies in the education system that have rendered a large number of school leavers unemployed, urging Nigerian youths to take full advantage of the opportunities offered by the project.
According to the Minister, an estimated 40 technical colleges in the country, alongside the private sector would benefit from the project which also has a technical teacher training component.
The minister revealed that a $200 million credit facility from the World Bank had been approved for the project which implementation would span over a five-year period.
Earlier in his welcome address, the Benue State Commissioner for Education, Dr Saawuan Tarnongu commended the World Bank, Federal Ministry of Education and other stakeholders for organising the workshop while pledging the total support and commitment of the government and people of Benue State towards the successful implementation of the project.
As part of its commitment, the Commissioner disclosed that Governor Samuel Ortom had approved the recruitment of science and technical teachers as well as the erection of perimeter fences for all the colleges selected for the project in the state.
- On his part, the State Coordinator of IDEAS project, Samuel Kwende, told participants that the training of key players in the chain of the implementation process is a prerequisite for the overall success of the projects.
