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FG, World Bank partner to train technical teachers on innovative skills

By Favour Nnabugwu

 

 

 

The Federal Government and the World Bank have collaborated to improve the knowledge of teachers in the federal technical colleges in the country with the 21st century skills that will digitilise the students.

Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education, Mr. Andrew David Adejo disclosed this while declaring open a workshop on the development of a Structure for the in-service training of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) teachers and instructors on Wednesday in Abuja.

Adejo, who was represented by the Director of Technology and Science Education, Mrs. Grace Jakko, said there is the utmost importance to strengthen the technical schools with the aim to increase the availability of competent and motivated technical teachers and instructors.

He explained that the workshop come on the heels of the realisation that the 21st century presents a radically different economy and society, which is having profound implications generally on education and more specifically on skills development in Technical and Vocational Education.

He said that the skills development system in Nigeria must therefore, adapt to the emerging trends of globalisation for economic viability especially in our relevant skills for the formal and informal sectors of the economy.

According to him, “All the federal technical teachers in the 27 technical schools across the federation will be trained and captured in this component and the five states that are participating in the IDEAS Project, each of the state has three technical colleges and all the teachers in these technical colleges will be captured.

“I’m very certain that we except so much from the teachers, the administrators and the project implementors.”

National Project Coordinator, IDEAS Project, Blessing Ehi Ogwu said the purpose of the project is to development a comprehensive structure for training technical teachers in Nigeria.

Mrs. Ogwu expressed confidence that collective knowledge and expertise of the participants will help create a framework that can effectively prepare technical teachers to meet the challenges of the future.

She also disclosed that they target to equip about 5000 people with technical skills to meet up with the market demand, adding that technical education plays a crucial role in shaping the future of our society.

She said it’s imperative that we have well-trained teachers who can effectively impart technical knowledge to our students.

She, however, noted that designing an effective training program for technical teachers is not an easy task, saying it requires careful planning, coordination and collaboration among various stakeholders.

On her part, a World Bank consultant, Dr Mistura Rufai, disclosed that the entire IDEAS Project is about $200 million and that teachers training is one of the components of that project with about $25 million to $30 million will be spent on training teachers in Nigeria.

Dr Rufai however said though the teachers training has not started but they want to put in place some structure to ensure that when they start, they kickoff the training this year.

The project is for TVET teachers in Nigeria wether it’s being implemented in the state or not, it’s going to cover all the six geopolitical zones, all the states in the country.

“Already we have 38 technical colleges that have been equipped with workshops across the country this is one of the things we are going to leverage on.

“These schools are going to be used as training centres for teachers, we are also looking at boosting the capacity of tertiary institutions that are already providing training for teachers, look at how we can up skill and digitalize their training. There is also plan to up skilled these tertiary institutions providing training to teachers.

“We work with the institution to ensure that the equipment they are getting are 21st century equipment that are market relevant.”

The World Bank consultant said that they wanted the teachers to be trained with the skill demand in the market so that when the students graduatee with their skills for them to be market relevant and provide the skills that the market wants.”

Ben Akpan, a facilitator at the workshop, said the essence of the world bank is to enable the federal government to take ownership of the project so they would have acquired the know-how and continue the project.

Patoma Admin by — March 15, 2023 in Education 0
FG, Uni-Abuja, ACCI elicits NEPZA over proposed SEZ’s initiative

By Favour Nnabugwu

 

 

The Federal Government has said that the Nigeria Export Processing Zones Authority’s (NEPZA) accelerated initiatives at designating willing Universities as Special Economic Zones was aimed at speedily reconfiguring the country’s academic environment to match with global trends and competitiveness.

The Hon. Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Otunba Adeniyi Adebayo made the remark while playing host to Prof. Abdul-Rasheed Na’Allah, the Vice Chancellor of the University of Abuja, Prince Adetokunbo Kayode SAN, former Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation and Prof. Adesoji Adesugba, MD/CEO NEPZA in his office on Tuesday in Abuja.

Ademola said that the country’s industrialisation process could become much more prolific and all-encompassing when the country was able to coordinate its universities to also operate as profitable industries through the free zone scheme.

“The MD NEPZA has given a brief background of what this is all about and let me assure you that it is something that the federal government will be interested in.

“It is indeed a unique idea to be able to make the academic institutions have the freedom to breakaway from the over-dependence on government for funding. Once this initiative gains popularity, universities across the country will become centers of not only human capital development but of wealth creation.

“I am delighted with the strong partnership the university of Abuja has created with NEPZA and the Abuja Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) to pull this project through.

“You have to move fast so that we can get all things sorted out as quickly as possible. I will, however, like to assure you that you have my 100 per cent support.’’ the minister said.

On his part, the VC said that the visit was a follow up to a preliminary technical session held with NEPZA recently, adding that the both parties had worked assiduously in ensuring that the project was realized at the short possible time.

Na’Allah explained that the project required the blessing and support of the minister and the federal government, adding that the designation of the university as a special economic zone would not only put an end to our history of incessant strikes, but would transfer enormous wealth into the hands of all members of the university community.

He said further that the university was endowed with a number of solid minerals at commercial quantities, adding that opening the campus space for external investments using the free zone concept would be a landmark achievement.

“We want the university to become the richest institution in Nigeria. We will open the space for tourism, estate, mining, agriculture, car production plants, dairy farms, light rail services etc. Our proximity to the city and the airport makes movement seamless. This is our thinking, this is our project,’’ the VC said.

Speaking, Kayode also former president of ACCI, and Head of the Technical Committee, expressed delight to be part of the project.
He said that the ACCI had sourced sufficient investors and international financial bodies that had bought into the project.

“We are expected to reconfigure the way the country’s universities are run using the university of Abuja as a pilot scheme.

“We have been to some of the great universities around the world and seen that those institutions have direct influence in the development of their host cities. This is what we want to replicate here.’’ Kayode said.

You may recall that NEPZA and the Ekiti State Government are working on processes to establish the “Knowledge and Technology Special Economic Zone’’ in Ado Ekiti, just as it received an application from the Afe Babalola University Ado Ekiti (ABUA) for a similar project.

The NEPZA boss, therefore, said that the Authority was on the verge of showing how the university and chains of industries could jointly be operated within same location to enhance the country’s industrialisation process.

Patoma Admin by — February 2, 2023 in Industry, Trade & Investment 0
FG, States, LGs share N740 bn

By Favour Nnabugwu

 

 

The federal, states and Local governments have shared the sum of N739. 965 billion as federation revenue which was earned in the month of September.

This was contained in a communiqué issued at the end of the virtual meeting of the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) for October, 2021.

The N739.965 billion total Distributable Revenue comprised distributable Statutory Revenue of N577.765 billion, distributable Value Added Tax (VAT) revenue of N159.096 billion and Exchange Gain of N3.104 billion.

In September 2021, the sum of N126.272 billion was the total deductions for cost of collection, statutory transfers, savings and refunds. The balance in the Excess Crude Account (ECA) was $60.860 million.

The communiqué confirmed that from the total Distributable Revenue of N739.965 billion, the Federal Government received N301.311 billion, the State Governments received N220.272 billion, while the Local Government Councils received N164.176 billion. The sum of N54.206 billion was shared to the relevant States as 13% derivation revenue.

The distributable Statutory Revenue of N577.765 billion was available for the month.

From this amount, the Federal Government received N276.008 billion, the State Governments received N139.995 billion; while the Local Government Councils received N107.930 billion.

The sum of N53.831billion was given to the oil producing states as 13% derivation revenue.

In September 2021, the gross revenue available from the Value Added Tax (VAT) was N170.850 billion.

This was lower than the N178.509 billion available in the month of August by N7.659billion.

The sum of N4.920 billion allocation to NEDC and N6.834 billion cost of revenue collection were deducted from the N170.850 billion gross Value Added Tax (VAT) revenue, resulting in the distributable Value Added Tax (VAT) revenue of N159.096billion.

From the N159.096billion distributable Value Added Tax (VAT) revenue, the Federal Government received N23.864 billion, the State Governments received N79.548 billion and the Local Government Councils received N55.684 billion.

The Federal Government received N1.438 billion from the Exchange Gain revenue of N3.104 billion. The State Governments receive N0.729 billion, the Local Government Councils received N0.562 billion, while N0.375 billion was shared to the relevant States as 13% derivation revenue.

According to the communiqué, in the month of September 2021, Petroleum Profit Tax (PPT), Oil and Gas Royalties and Excise Duty increased significantly, while Companies Income Tax (CIT), Value Added Tax (VAT) and Import Duty decreased marginally.

It was gathered that the federal government rescinded its earlier decision to deduct the controversial $418 million from the funds from states and local governments’ allocation in order to pay consultants who claimed that they assisted the two tiers of government in securing Paris Club over-deductions from the federal government.

Sources at yesterday’s FAAC meeting revealed that the decision to suspend the deductions was to avoid a delay in the sharing of the monthly revenue which could lead to the failure of the three tiers of government in meeting their financial obligations, including the payment of workers’ salaries.

It was learnt that last week’s meeting had agreed on all indices and sharing concluded but for the issue of the deductions from the allocations of the states and the LGs, which brought the stalemate.

The suspension of the deductions, sources said was to enable the parties “sort things out” before a conclusive action would be taken at subsequent FAAC meetings.

Patoma Admin by — October 28, 2021 in News 0