Mohammed Shosanya
The Industrial Training Fund (ITF), has said that it has made over N48.873billion which it projected for the 2023 fiscal year.
It also said that it has raked in N51.344billion as at third quarter of the year.
It projected that it would generate the following funds for the next three years; N66.473billion for 2024, N69. 744billion in 2025 and N73.2billion in 2026.
The disclosures were made on Tuesday at the National Assembly in Abuja by the Director General of the Fund, Dr. Afiz Oluwatoyin Ogun when he faced the Senate’s joint committees on Finance, Appropriation, National Planning, Local and Foreign Debts.
Ogun,who was represented by the Director of Finance and Accounts of the Fund, Hajia Safiya Atta Mansoor, said out of the generated revenue, N14billion had been remitted into consolidated Revenue Fund just as 50% of the revenue, used for reimbursement of employers of labour.
She listed ITF’s three sources of revenues to include- training fund, cost fee and other incomes.
The ITF DG informed the committee members that National Artisans Registration and Development Programme would soon be put in place for registration of artisans across the country and facilitating their operations corporately .
“Within my short stay in Nigeria, i observed that artisan jobs in the country, have been taken over by Beninoises, Ghanaians and Togolese which should not be so, because there is no job Nigerians cannot do.
“To stem the tide, ITF under my leadership, would soon put in place, National Artisans Registration and Development Programme to register our artisans and positioned them for jobs due to them,” he said.
He added that ITF is a big organisation with 16 Directors, two head offices, 41 Area Offices, 5 Skills and Training Centres, 14 Vocational Skills and Training Centres etc.
The joint committee looking into projections made by the executive for 2022 to 2026 Medium Term Expenditure Framework ( MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper ( FSP), however tasked the agency to direct its finance department to tidy up slight discrepancies observed in the reports submitted to it.
The observed discrepancies, as stated by the Chairman of the Committee, Senator Sani Musa ( APC Niger East ), must be corrected this week before committee submits its report to the Senate.