Idris Bugaje, the executive secretary of the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE), has called for establishing a national skills development fund.

According to him, the fund should be created to support the informal skills sector as a way of achieving self-reliance and economic growth.

Mr Bugaje said such a fund would support the ‘Panteka’ market in Kaduna and other informal skills sectors across the country.

The NBTE chief said this at the graduation of the first set of artisans from the Panteka market in Kaduna, with 23 trained at the Centre for Technology Development (CTD), Kaduna Polytechnic.

They were subsequently awarded the National Skills Qualification (NSQ) Level 3 certification by the Nigerian Institute of Building (NIOB).

Three of the graduates were members of the board’s staff that formed the cohort and also achieved the certification.

According to Mr Bugaje, the Panteka market has the potential to reinvent Nigeria and sustain a good future for the youths through creating wealth and employment and bolstering self-reliance in technology.

He also said Tradermoni and other political interventions had little sustainable impact on the nation’s economy.

Mr Bugaje said, “In unleashing hidden talents, passing down invaluable skills and shaping the future of aspiring learners, Panteka must be supported by the government to bloom and reach its zenith.”

The rector of the Kaduna Polytechnic, Sulaiman Umar, said, “This is to make the market produce quality products with high precision and efficiency for local and international markets. 

“The certification of the artisans was aimed at providing them with necessary certificates that would make them available to the formal sector, including foreign clients.”

Mr Umar said the polytechnic offered to train 70 artisans in 2021 to acquire the NSQ Level 3 qualification in their respective trades as a corporate social responsibility at no cost to the artisans or the Panteka market association.

He said the training was after the institution’s resolution to key into the NSQ framework approved by the federal government and coordinated by NBTE.

“It is the mind of the polytechnic to support the artisans with equipment and tools that are either too expensive for them or rare to facilitate their otherwise tedious and sometimes unconventional production processes,” the rector explained.

(NAN)