On 8 December 2014, the Cement Technology Institute of Nigeria (CTIN) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Industrial Training Fund (ITF). The MoU, which will see the injection of around N15 billion into the ITF to aid training and job creation for artisans in the construction industry, was signed by Aliko Dangote, Chairman of the Board of CTIN and President of the Dangote Group, and Juliet Chukkas-Onaeko, Director-General of ITF, in Lagos. The agreement forms part of the CTIN’s aim to aid the realisation of the federal government's agenda on employment generation and drive the rapidly growing Nigerian cement industry.
The training workshop has been designed by the CTIN and ITF to teach core skills to around 350 artisans and craftsmen in each state. These skills include carpentry, tile laying, plaster of Paris works, electrical works, masonry, plumbing, and block making/interlocking tiles works. According to Dangote, the collaboration is expected to herald in a new philosophy of imparting knowledge to teeming artisans and craftsmen across the country, with the sole aim of enhancing vocational and entrepreneurial skills. Juliet Chukas-Onaeko further noted the importance of skills development to the construction industry, particularly in light of Nigeria’s problem with building collapse.
The first phase of the project will begin next week and involves a training programme that will cover a state from each of the six geopolitical zones, as well as the states of Lagos, Kano and Port-Harcourt.
Edited from various sources by Rosalie Starling
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