By Blessing Odega
Mr Joseph Ari, the Director-General of the Industrial Training Fund (ITF), has said that the fund paid over N1billion to 87,537 students as training allowances in 2021.
Ari disclosed this at the fund’s 2021 Annual Merit Award ceremony on Wednesday in Jos, adding that the sum was the Industrial Work Experience Scheme (SIWES) and supervisory allowances.
He said that the beneficiaries included university undergraduates, as well as students of polytechnics and colleges of education.
He said that given its integral role in the training of students of Engineering, Technology and other allied disciplines in tertiary Institutions, the ITF accords priority attention to the management of the scheme.
Ari assured the public of the fund’s commitment to the prompt payment of students and supervisors’ allowances, ”as soon as money is received from the Federal Government.”
In his remarks, Otunba Richard Adebayo, the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, commended that ITF for the implementation of several life transforming skills, intervention programmes and other initiatives.
He said that they had empowered thousands of Nigerians with requisite skills for employability and entrepreneurship in the last six years.
The minister, who was represented by Alhaji Mohammed Ndakoko, the Director of Policy, Planning, Research and Statistics, called on the fund to sustain its tempo of transforming activities.
He enjoined the state governments, Non-Governmental Organsations (NGOs) and well-meaning Nigerians to collaborate with the ITF to combat poverty and unemployment.
(NAN)
