Director-General of the Industrial Training Fund (ITF), Dr Afiz Oluwatoyin Ogun, has said that 7,000 artisans have so far obtained international certification under the Federal Government’s Skill-Up Artisans (SUPA) programme.

Ogun, who disclosed this on Monday while monitoring the ongoing international certification examination at the ITF Centre of Excellence in Jos, Plateau State, said that the fund had so far spent N587 million on the programme.

Ogun said 7,795 artisans were sitting for the examination across 27 states and at 28 examination centres, marking a major expansion of the international certification component of the SUPA programme after an earlier pilot exercise, which took place in Abuja.

He said that the examination was being conducted by Alberk QA Technic of Türkiye, while the ITF was also working towards exposing beneficiaries to other international certification bodies.

The ITF boss said the initiative was aimed at changing the narrative around Nigerian artisans by equipping them with internationally recognised qualifications that would enable them to compete for jobs and business opportunities both within Nigeria and abroad.

He said, “The Federal Government is determined to ensure that Nigerian artisans no longer remained disadvantaged in the global labour market because of a lack of recognised certification.

“We promised Nigerians that Nigerian artisans will have an opportunity to have a bouquet of certification.

“We have ProQual coming in, GQA coming in and City & Guilds coming in. All these examinations, they will have the opportunity to write them, and this does not come cheap.”

He explained that beneficiaries would also retain Nigeria’s National Skills Qualification Framework (NSQF) certification, stressing that combining local and international qualifications would significantly improve the credibility and mobility of Nigerian artisans.

“When you have combined qualifications, anybody knows that when you have combined qualifications, it is better than just a single qualification,” he said.

Ogun said the programme was also designed to bring up a crop of indigenous artisans to address the growing presence of foreign artisans in Nigeria. (The Sun)

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