In furtherance of the nationwide empowerment and job creation for youths by the National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI), about 100 youths selected from Ibadan in Oyo State are currently benefiting from the Federal Government’s youth empowerment programme aimed at giving new skills and modernising activities of artisans in the plumbing vocation.
State-of-the-art plumbing equipment, tools and diagnostic kits worth several millions of naira were handed over to 100 youths around Ibadan on Monday, September 26, 2022, in continuation of President Buhari’s directive to NASENI to give Nigerian youths new skills, carry out retraining exercises in line with modern techniques in their different vocations.
A similar exercise kicked off in Kebbi State in August 2022, when youths from the area were trained and given modern equipment and tools in farming.
Executive Vice Chairman/CE NASENI, Mohammed Sani Haruna, while flagging-off the training in Ibadan, said that NASENI was carrying out President Muhammadu Buhari’s directive.
He said: “The time had come to put an end to the habit of giving out technical jobs meant for Nigerians to foreigners or migrants from neighbouring countries”, hence President Buhari’s approval of the on-going special training for plumbers operating in Ibadan.
President Muhammadu Buhari is the Chairman, Governing Board of NASENI.
With the training as a hands-on empowerment programme, Professor Haruna explained: “President Buhari’s intention is the prosperity of the youths and job satisfaction so they could take their plumbing work seriously and move to the highest level of efficiency and professionalism in plumbing.”
The training programme targets inputting in the trainees modern skills, acquisition and training on modern methods of plumbing and its applications. The youths selected from Oyo State are benefiting from the first phase of the programme targeted at those who are already in the profession of plumbing. The capacity building focuses on reskilling the plumbers to handle installations and maintenance of plumbing works with modern techniques, tools, diagnostics and equipment.
According to the study carried out which led to the Presidential directive; it was observed in Ibadan metropolis that delivery of plumbing works had become problematic because residents and house owners are experiencing poor jobs and finishing of plumbing works. The training programme is therefore targeted at addressing such challenges for professionals and to make plumbing work become knowledge-based for youths and in tune with modern methods in plumbing and further upgrade of their skills.
Speaking also at the event, the Chairman of the occasion and Member representing Ibadan North Federal Constituency who doubles as Chairman, House of Representatives’ Committee on Science Research Institutes, Musiliudeen Olaide Akinremi (Jagaban) said the Ibadan citizens are grateful to President Buhari and NASENI for the intervention to upgrade the skills of plumbers in Ibadan and also giving new tools and technology for them to work with.
He said the youths and their empowerment had become the most critical socio-economic programme for sustenance of any modern economy and also a glimpse at “the idea of what the future of the country will looks like”.
Therefore, empowering the youths, and especially a critical subsector like plumbing is critical to housing and general construction, he said. He also disclosed that youth empowerment programme is central to his legislative agenda, adding, that the Ibadan North Federal Constituency zone is lucky for being the first beneficiary of the programme by the Federal Government in the South-West.
He charged the trainees to use the equipment and tools to help themselves to increase their efficiency in the course of carrying out their tasks on site.
The presidential mandate to NASENI in the on-going exercise is to move round the 36 states of the country to empower 100 youths in each location on such areas and skills where it is observed that critical vocational skill lacks efficiency and therefore needing upgrades, new skills acquisition, tools and equipment to advance such identified vocation.
The list of new tools and equipment handed over to the plumbers include: PPR machine, Drilling Machine, Pressure Testing Machine, Plum, Plunger, Mechanical tools box, Spanners, Pipe Wrench, Punch, Set of Chisels, Ratchet Socket Spanner Box and Gas Piler. Safety kits given to the trainees include Safety shoes, Eye goggles, and mechanical hand gloves, amongst others.
