Cement manufacturers boost capacity of artisans with N15bn

Nigerian cement manufacturers have boosted the capacity of the Industrial Training Fund (ITF) in the training and job creation for artisans with the injection of about N15 billion into the fund.

This was disclosed on Monday in Lagos by Aliko Dangote, chairman, board of trustees, Cement Technology Institute of Nigeria (CTIN), at the signing of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the ITF on the training of artisans and craftsmen in the construction industry.

The training workshop has been designed to impact the necessary skills to 350 artisans and craftsmen in each state and will cover the following trade areas: carpentry, tile laying, plaster of Paris (PoP) works, electrical works, masonry, plumbing, and block making/inter-locking tiles works.

According to Dangote, “It is a unique collaboration expected to herald in a new philosophy of teaching and impacting knowledge to our teeming artisans and craftsmen across the country with the sole aim of enhancing vocational and entrepreneurial skills.

“We are all aware that it has become a norm rather than practice to seek for competent artisans and craftsmen from the neighbouring countries, due mainly to inadequate vocational training given to our local trade men and women.”

Juliet Chukas-Onaeko, director-general, ITF, thanked the CTIN for the gesture, saying skills development was critical to the construction industry, because poor skill acquisition could also lead to building collapse. “The construction sector has been of great interest as any defect in this sector has serious implication on the nation.
“I see this collaboration as a right step in the right direction, as it will lead to healthy working relationship in the sector,” she said.

The first phase, which starts next week, comprises training programme that will cover a state each from the six geo-political zones as well as three peculiar states of Lagos, Kano and Rivers, said the director-general, who therefore used the opportunity to enjoin state governments to send in trainees. “We want all the state governments to key into this initiative started by the CTIN, to send in people for training to boost Nigerian industries. This will reduce unemployment in the society.”

The CTIN is the first of its kind established to among other things train and enhance manpower in cement technology and related fields, and to liaise with other relevant institutions and bodies with a view to enhancing cement technology development.

In close relation with the objectives of CTIN are those of the ITF, which has among its mandate to provide, promote and encourage acquisition of skills in industry and commerce with a view to generating a pool of indigenous trained manpower sufficient to meet the needs of private and public sectors of the economy, as well as evaluation and certification of vocational skills acquired by apprentices, craftsmen and technicians.

“The present effort to enhance the skills of our artisans and craftsmen is therefore a symbiotic relationship between two organisations saddled with the responsibility of impacting skills and knowledge to our trades men and women”, Dangote said.

“We are all very familiar with the evolution of the cement industry in this country, which had recorded over 39 million metric ton installed with more plants under construction, rehabilitation and expansion. It has, therefore, become imperative not only to expand the utilisation and consumption of cement but also to guarantee its safe and efficient usage.” This training programme, which is targeted to cover the entire country, will among others, broaden the scope of the use of cement in various construction works,” he said.

Adepeju Adebajo, managing director, Wapco operations, Lafarge Africa plc, said she strongly believe that this collaboration was timely in view of the overdependence on artisans and craftsmen from neighbouring countries and the nonchalant attitude to construction ethics and standards.

The collaboration is aimed at achieving the following objectives: to organise and conduct training programmes for artisans and craftsmen in the building industry; to determine specific needs and opportunity for capacity building and process improvement for artisans and craftsmen that use cement to execute their work; to promote professionalism, proficiency and actualisation of the training to-work initiative and entrepreneurship so as to discourage the importation of foreign artisans and craftsmen from neighbouring countries, and to complement the success of transformation agenda of the present administration in the area of youth empowerment and employment generation.