We’re training 100,000 artisans under FG’s skill-up programme – Afiz Ogun
President Bola Tinubu
We’re training 100,000 artisans under FG’s skill-up programme – Afiz Ogun
The Federal Government has said that it will train at least 100,000 artisans in the country in the Skill Up Artisan Super programme of President Bola Tinubu’s current administration.
The FG, through the Industrial Training Fund, said the programme was part of the administration’s plan to upgrade artisans of various occupations to international standards.
The Director-General of the ITF, Mr Afiz Ogun, disclosed this at the inauguration of the South-West Secretariat of the Association of Nigeria Artisans and Technicians in Akure, the state capital, on Monday.
Ogun explained that President Tinubu’s administration planned to ensure that all artisans in the country were upgraded from the quackery level.
He said, “Skill Up Artisan Super is a very robust program brought by our president, President Bola Tinubu, for the artisans in Nigeria. He wants to make sure that the artisans in Nigeria are on par with their colleagues all over the world. He wants to make sure that the Nigerian artisans are up there. If you go to America, you will look at the doctors there, and you will see that Nigerians are caring first. If you go anywhere in the world, in every aspect of life, you see Nigerians up there.
“Why not the artisans in Nigeria? Why do we see artisans who can no longer lay tiles and artisans who are no longer so close, doing very well? He ( Tinubu ) says no. He promised them (artisans ) during the election that he was going to take care of them. He is going to come to their aid, and he is doing exactly that now. With this program, Super Skill Up Artisan, he has said that every artisan in Nigeria, every artisan, is his candidate.
“There is no candidate from one governor or from one senator or from one local government chairman. All of them will be touched. They are all his candidates. They are all his constituents because you fought. This is the first time in the history of Nigeria that a president will remember the artisans.”
Ogun urged the artisans, who included barbers, tailors, automobile mechanics, electrical technicians, among others, to support the federal government programme, saying the 29,000 artisans benefited from the programme in 2024 and 100,000 would benefit in 2025.
“I want you all to support the program. I want you all to stand behind him and ITF, which is pushing the program. We started last year with 29,000 artisans and non-artisans. We upgraded them to artisans. Now, we want to start with 100,000 artisans. We are upskilling you to international standards this year by the grace of God. The president wants to remove quackery. Once the president removes quackery, all those things will end. When the artisans start gaining enormously from their sweat, then none of the artisans will deem it fit to go and start riding commercial okada as a means of transportation again.
“There will be dignity in labour. All the artisans will be able to stand and say, “I am a barber, I am a tailor, I am a bricklayer, I am a mechanic. There will be no shame again. This is what the President wants for you, and he has started driving it, and he is driving it. It is for you to support the program. It is for you to support the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,” the DG urged.
In his remarks, the state chairman of ASNAT, Mr Babatunde Oyeleye, urged his members to key into the programme for their development.
“My advice to the artisans is to key into the program of the ITF and listen to them, so they will be trained beyond the level they have trained from the craftsmanship before. So they need to upgrade to the international level.
“Most of us have left our jobs, we’ve been to the universities, this must have taken us to have more knowledge about the training work we did. But not everyone of us can be able to afford that. Now that the government has come into our aid, I believe it’s better for every artisan in Nigeria to key into the programme,” he charged.
