The National Association of Professional Artisans of Nigeria (NUPAN) has pledged to conduct free vocational training to 1000 persons in Akwa Ibom state.
The areas of training include; fashion designing, graphic designing, make-up artist, shoe/bag making, solar panel installation, cosmetology, soap/detergent, bead making, catering/hotel management, photography, driving, among others.
The National President, Comrade Aniekanabasi Dennis, who spoke during the NUPAN 2020 leadership retreat in Eket, yesterday, said that the move became necessary to tame increasing rate of unemployment partly occasioned by Covid-19 pandemic.
“Nigeria Economy is in recession and the inflation rate is very high. There is no job available to everyone and this has resulted in high rate of crime due to Covid-19 pandemic.
“The union beliefs that the solution to this is in skill acquisition, so that in post Covid-19, the youth may not continue remain jobless and be rooming the street in search for white-collar jobs,” he said.
He revealed that the union would soon launch a mobile app known as CRAFTZONE where all artisans will be integrated in one entity thereby making it easy for them to readily get connected to jobs without much stress across the country.
Dennis, who lamented that most his members were excluded from the survival fund to artisans by the federal government caused by infiltration of corrupt individuals, stressed that the union would soon embark on a peaceful demonstration to expose them.
Also speaking, The Area Manager, Industrial Training Fund,(ITF), Uyo area office, Mrs Patience Ndu commended the union for keying into the vision of the Federal Government which is geared towards self employment.
Ndu decried that many government organizations, private organizations as well as well meaning individuals had rendered skill empowerment programmes yearly but the desired effect was yet to be felt.
Represented by a Senior Training Development Officer of ITF, Mr Ogbonnaya Ugo, she called for “a total overhaul of our mindset and approach to life challenges”.
Ndu urged the artisans to recreate passion in their work to make it attractive rather than an escape from idleness.
