By Joan Nwagwu

The National Directorate of Employment (NDE) says it will rehabilitate the agency’s non-functioning skill acquisition centres across the country.

Mr Silas Agara, the Director General of NDE, said this on the sidelines of the ongoing 113th Session of the International Labour Conference in Geneva, Switzerland, on Thursday.

Agara said that the agency was making tremendous efforts to rehabilitate the skill acquisition centres.

“Not all the skill centres are functioning and that is very correct. We are taking statistics of those that are not functioning and we have taken statistics of other partners that have up to date effective skill centres nationwide.

“NDE alone cannot do it all. NDE alone cannot play the monopoly of training unemployed youths in the country.

“We are taking statistics of centres owned by other agencies and owned by state governments and there is need for collaboration because these centres are built for unemployed persons and they should be able to benefit.

“So it is for us to be able to design our programmes and look at the timing.

“NDE will redesign its programmes so that those that have built those centres we don’t denied them the opportunity of using those centres for the purpose of what they developed it for,” he said.

He said that the mode of operation of the agency was being reviewed in order for it to serve the purpose of which it was created.

“We have to change the way that the NDE operates, and move it to digital that is the only way beneficiaries can access what you are doing not like the analogue methods where forms are distributed to beneficiaries.

“We have begun to address that situation where you have to log in and upload all your details, and your account details are there, BVN, and it makes it difficult for beneficiaries to be recycled.”

He also said that the NDE has so far trained 93,000 Nigerians this year to be self-reliant, adding that the agency was developing a monitoring system to access the progress made by these trainees.

“It is not perfect yet, but it is work in progress. We are able to track people that we trained and we are able to track items that we distribute to the trainees and the utilisation of those items.

“Also, those that are given soft loan facilities because we have their records we are also able to monitor the payment process.

“We are moving on to the next step. Hopefully by the end of this June, we should be able to come out with packages for beneficiaries,” he said.(NAN)(www.nannews.ng)

Edited by Ismail Abdulaziz