The National Board for Technical Education and Hypertech Nigeria have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to train Almajiri and other out-of-school children in the north on skills for national development.
Prof. Idris Bugaje, Executive Secretary of NBTE, stated shortly after the signing of the MoU in Kaduna that the goal was to address the Almajiri difficulties, increase the number of out-of-school children, and combat youth unemployment in the north and beyond.
According to Bugaje, HYPERTECH will fund the project, while the Board will contribute technical expertise, including local content.
He stated that the collaboration would enable them to train youth in the North-East, Kaduna, and other parts of the region (North).
This, he added, would move up the unemployed youth and give them skills to fit into national projects such as the Mambilla Hydroelectric power and the upcoming railway expansion and other projects across the country for the nation’s economic growth.
He said: “We have signed a MoU today with HYPERTECH. The purpose is to de-escalate and entrenched skills training in local content. HYPERTECH is the national consultant on local content for Mambilla Hydroelectric power projects and for many other projects across Nigeria.
“We would like to train local youth across areas in North-East, Kaduna, and other parts of the North so that we can move up the unemployed youth and give them skills to let them fit into national projects like the Mambilla Hydroelectric power project and the upcoming railway expansion and several other projects across Nigeria.
“Even Almajiri are going to be trained. They don’t need to have a Senior Secondary School Certificate (SSCE) to have skill training. The Almajiri across the country, almost 15 million of them, will be mobilised, trained, and given skills with certification and they can fit into infrastructure projects.”
He added that thousands of the Almajiri and out-of-school children as well as school drop-outs would benefit from the programme which would take place at the Government Technical College, Malali, and other designated centres across the state and even beyond.
“The implementation is through the identified training centres. Here in Kaduna, we have identified Government Technical College, Malali, and in every state, we are going to identify appropriate centres.
“HYPERTECH is going to facilitate the training and we are going to provide the necessary quality assurance. We know the sector in councils involved and they are being informed. They will also be brought on board and with the funding coming from HYPERTECH, we can roll out training across the country.
“The out-of-school children will fit into this agenda. They don’t need to have any qualifications. The Almajiri and all others can fit into this agenda. Many of them have very high potential to learn certain skills and we are going to give them this opportunity,” he added.
Also speaking, the managing director of HYPERTECH, Mohammed Mustapha said the MoU was expected to benefit thousands of Almajiri and out-of-school children as well as the unemployed youth.
He noted that the objective of the MoU was skewed towards national development.
He said: “We are here to sign MoU with the NBTE in the advancement of the local content policy and also by extension with our corporate social responsibility, the Arewa Foundation which is focusing on the uplift of the Almajiri programmes in line with the current development of the Almajiri commission.”
Among other projects being targeted, he said, was the Mambilla Hydroelectric Power project set to generate 3,050 Megawatts of Hydroelectric power, signed off by the Nigeria and Chinese governments that are working towards implementation.
“We are targeting three different projects. We have a national project in view which is the Mambilla Hydro-power project that is set to generate 3,050 MW of Hydroelectricity power projects and also signed off by the Nigerian and Chinese governments that are working towards implementation.”
