The National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) yesterday launched the Sub-Saharan African Apprenticeship and Stakeholders Network (SASASNET) and workshop as well as the official unveiling of the network’s logo in Abuja.
Speaking at the event, the Vice President, Sen. Kashim Shettima, said SASASNET is aimed at the development of skills and apprenticeships for sub-Saharan Africa.
Shettima who was represented by permanent secretary Ministry of Education, Mr Andrew Adejo added that the workshop seeks to begin very practical processes to address one of the age-long challenges to Sub-Saharan Africa’s development.
He said, “If Africa is to be the next continent of destination, we can no longer afford to be exporting jobs with its attendant loss of much-needed foreign exchange earnings.
“On our part, Nigeria has established a National Council on Skills (NCS) chaired by my humble self and consists of key stakeholders from the government, development partners, the Organised Private Sector (OPS) and other partners.
“The NCS is to standardize and formalize the skills and apprenticeship activities in Nigeria. It is pleasing to inform you that the NCS is working towards addressing the skills mismatch between the labour market and graduates and harmonizing the various policies on skills in Nigeria.”
In his welcome address, interim Chairman of SASASNET and the Executive Secretary of NBTE, Prof Idris Bugaje said Africa especially the sub-Saharan part is at crossroads either it skills up its youth or it shall continue to remain the world’s poverty continent with many of its youth escaping the continent through dangerous means.
“SASASNET shall spearhead the crusade for interventions from both governments and Organised Private Sector (OPS) to re-engineer this vital talent, and untapped potentials of the informal sector so that future of industrialization of Africa shall be facilitated with products of this sector and not repeat what happened in the recently completed world’s largest single refinery in Lagos by the Dangote Group, wherein over 11,000 skilled labour, largely from India, were imported to Nigeria to deliver it.’’
Bugaje, therefore, lamented that the upcoming $25bn Trans-Saharan Gas Pipeline being designed to deliver gas from the Gulf of Guinea to Europe should not be allowed to suffer the same fate.
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