The Member representing Aguata Federal Constituency in the National Assembly, Chukwuma Umeoji has urged the Federal Government to restructure Nigeria’s apprenticeship system and expand vocational training centres to boost employment in the country.
The Federal Lawmaker who made the call in an exclusive interview with our correspondent regretted that the undeniable and invaluable contributions of indigenous artisanship to societal and national development, are becoming very weak.
He expressed worry that due to the failure to develop apprenticeship culture in Nigeria, Chinese and other expatriate artisans have taken over Nigeria’s market to the detriment of local artisans thus kicking the indigenous artisans out of the market.
According to him, there is the need for the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) to verify the immigration status of all expatriate artisans in the country and accordingly report back to the House Committee on Interior.
“The challenge posed by lack of quality and adequate manpower for housing, construction, automobile repair, steelwork, renovation and fabrication works etc to individual citizens, urban managers and development planners is enormous. Every year, expatriate artisans repatriate half of the estimated over #900 billion they make to their home countries.
Federal Government should deemphasize paper qualification and pay more attention to vocational education to stem the tide of unemployment among Nigerian youths,” he urged.
Umeoji called for the establishment of new skills acquisition centres in all states of the federation.
The Federal Lawmaker further urged the Director-general, National Directorate of Employment (NDE) to evolve pragmatic action plan that will help address the challenge of unemployment among youths in line with the vision of President Muhammadu Buhari.
