ITF Merit Award: Isolo Area Office Wins as DG Commends Hard Work

BY CHAMBERLAIN ODEY, JOS – The Isolo (Lagos) Area Office of the Industrial Training Fund (ITF), has emerged overall best in the 2019 merit awards of the organization. 

Presentation of the award was part of a colourful ceremony at the Fund’s headquarters in Jos on Tuesday, March 10, 2020, which saw a chunk of the staff from the 38 Area Offices in the Jos, being the headquarters of the organization for the awards and celebration of hard work. 

In an address at the occasion, the Director General and Chief Executive Officer of the ITF, Sir Joseph Ari, KSS, noted that the past year 2019 was of special challenges to the ITF and Nigeria generally. He said; “As an organization, we have made a commitment to our stakeholders as we declared 2019 a year of delivery.”

Ari stated further saying; “as an organization, we concluded that the time for excuses and the tendency to blame organizational non-performance on the economy was over, as the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, had effectively contained rampant recession he inherited through policies that returned the tottering economy to the path of growth.”

Ari also said since the national economy experienced a growth of two percent for first time after 2016 and post-recession, the ITF management was convinced that “the twin blights of unemployment and poverty and their attendant effects, which have manifested themselves in the forms of terrorism, banditry, kidnapping, and unimaginable social vices, could only be effectively tackled if agencies and parastatals such as ours which were expected to provide Nigerians with live skills effectively actualise their mandate and lead the way”.

The Director General disclosed that the Fund conducted a feasibility check known as skills gap survey, adding that in the fiscal period in focus, “the Fund expanded the scope of certain programmes for more Nigerians to benefit “.

“Under the NISP, the Fund trained over 11,100 Nigerians across the 36 states of the Federation and the FCT in eight trade areas” which include leather works, catering and events management, smart installation, and welding and fabrication. 

In a message to the occasion, Governor Simon Bako Lalong of Plateau state, represented by the commissioner for special duties, Jeremiah Werr, commended the ITF for it’s initiatives, vision, and drive to open up the productive potentials of the national economy, promising that the doors of the State government are always open as it is ready to partner with the ITF to achieve even greater results. 

The three-pronged awards were sub-detailed into three each, as the Abuja Area Office won in category A as The best Area Office in Revenue generation.