From Mike Tayese, Yenagoa

The Executive Secretary, Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), Engr. Simbi Kesiye Wabote, has called for appropriate level of support for the National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI) in its efforts to achieve institutional objectives vital to national development.

NASENI, according to the NCDMB boss, has as key mandate the promotion of “research and development in the areas of science, engineering, and technology” as well as “nurturing an appropriate and dynamic science and engineering infrastructure base for achieving home-initiated and home-sustained industrialization for Nigeria.

”Engr.

Wabote was speaking on Tuesday as Chairman at the opening of a NASENI-sponsored Skill Acquisition Training and Youth Empowerment programme themed “Modern Methods of Electrical Installations and Maintenance.” He noted that technical skills such as “electrical installations and maintenance are critical to the industrialization of a nation” and that they are “in high demand in the oil and gas industry and other sectors of the economy.”

While commending NASENI for such training programmes, given their potential to significantly address the challenge of unemployment in a country with a huge youth population, he said collaboration is most desirable among “Government agencies such as the National Directorate of Employment (NDE), Petroleum Training Institute  (PTI), Industrial Training Fund (ITF), Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF)” and several others. He was, however, emphatic that initiatives of the sort must be thought through, end-to-end, to achieve the objectives, citing the decay and abandonment of some 2,000 vocational training centres in three states of the Niger Delta as an example of poor planning.

According to him, “With the enormous challenges at hand, NCDMB welcomes all initiatives to tackle the issues from all angles insofar as the end results are clearly thought out so that we are not just training for the sake of it.”  He drew the attention of the NASENI Management to NCDMB’s Nigerian Oil and Gas Parks Scheme (NOGaPS), stating that it is “one of the means to utilize the capacities being developed via trainings such as this.”

He also highlighted the fact that NASENI’s mandate “closely aligns with that of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board, whose mandate is to develop local capacities and capabilities across the oil and gas value chain.”     “To date,” the NCDMB boss continued, “we have delivered over 13 million training manhours and continue to carry out targeted interventions in our secondary schools, vocational institutions, and universities,” pointing out that “Nigeria is leading Africa in terms of human capacity development in the oil and gas industry.”

The Special Guest of Honour at the event, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, immediate past President of Nigeria, corroborated the facts reeled out by the NCDMB boss on the spectacular performance of the Board and stated that his invitation by Engr. Simbi Kesiye Wabote to chair the occasion was based on that awareness.

The former President, who has the credit for signing the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development (NOGICD) Act, 2010, into law, expressed his desire to see the two agencies collaborate closely to advance the nation’s developmental aspirations. He admonished the trainees to make the best use of the skills imparted as well as the start-up packs provided, while urging NCDMB and NASENI to work hard so they could “establish an excellent vocational training/resource centre in Bayelsa State.”

The Chief Host, Governor Douye Diri, represented by the Deputy Governor, Senator Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo, thanked NASENI for organising a training in critical skill areas in the State, while expressing his expectation that human capacity development programmes “should be deliberate and well-articulated.”

According to him, “ad hoc measures address emergencies,” and would be inappropriate for the type of objectives that agencies like NASENI seek to achieve. “Half measures cannot give a full result,” he added.The Governor challenged the trainees to take advantage of the training programme and develop the capacity for self-improvement and self-employment.

He advised against the common tendencies of trainees to sell off start-up packs, pointing out that “A wise man plants his seed” while a fool dispenses with his for immediate gratification.

Earlier in her welcome address, the Acting Executive Vice Chairman/Chief Executive of NASENI, Mrs. Nonyem Onyechi, thanked the former President, Dr. Jonathan, for returning the agency to The Presidency and thus freeing it from civil service bureaucracy. She said NASENI now “operates optimally.” According to her the ongoing five-day training, which has 100 youths from the three senatorial districts of Bayelsa State participating, is the second in the South South.

The training, she empasised, is to prepare Nigeria and her population for the next phase of the Industrial Revolution in which the technologies are those of artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, autonomous vehicles, 5G and the like.The training programme, which started on 9 May, comes to an end on 13 May. 

By Tony Obiechina, Abuja 

The Federal Government is set to install facial recognition technology at major Airports in Nigeria, Minister of  State , Budget and National Planning, Prince Clem Ikanada Agba has disclosed. 

The Minister stated this when he hosted the Japanese Ambassador to Nigeria, H.

E Matsunaga Kazuyoshi, and a team from NEC Corporation of Japan in his office on Abuja on Tuesday.  

 He affirmed that the airports would soon be operating an automatic security measures that would incorporate the use of Facial Recognition Technology in order to improve security around Airports and easily detect impostors.

Agba said that the Technology would be deployed to Airports through grant agreements between the Federal Government of Nigeria and the Japanese Government with a focus on Lagos and Abuja International Airports in the pilot phase before the project would be extended to Port Harcourt, Enugu and Kano Airport.

The Minister also disclosed that as part of the pre-requisites for the processing of the Facial Recognition Technology, he would be leading the Ambassador and the team on a site survey visit to Lagos and Abuja Airports  for necessary assessments.

 Agba said: “I am happy that the series of meetings, which began in January this year in Tokyo on this project, aimed at recognizing faces of persons who pass through our international airports has started to yield result.  This, we believe, would further strengthen the security of our people and the country as a whole. This project was conceived in view of several security concerns among Nigerians and the need to nip these growing concerns in the bud”

The Minister expressed his readiness and determination to leave a worthy legacy that would be inherited by the next administration in the area of a more secured country, just as he pleaded for the understanding and cooperation of all relevant stakeholders that would make the proposal a reality, assuring that Facial Recognition Technology had proven to be very effective globally, in securing Airports.

 In his presentation on the project, the Ambassador His Excellency Matsunaga Kazuyoshi  explained that the use of advanced technology like the facial recognition system would ensure that security threats were reduced in and around Nigeria Airports.

The initiative, he said, would further strengthen the country’s security architecture and encourage more investment opportunities in different sectors of Nigeria’s economy, citing the instance of similar project implemented in Nairobi, Kenya and how the project changed Kenya’s security narratives.

 He stated that the security solution works through image capturing techniques, Neo Face Watch Logging in, live view, widgets and dashboard, face Search and image manager and basic configuration, among others, the Ambassador assured that it was practically impossible to compromise security issues with the use of  Facial Recognition Technology.

 Kazuyoshi called on the Nigeria Police and the country’s immigration services to embrace the initiative as it would automate most of their operations and ease day to day security checks in the Airports.

“In all, we want to holistically support Nigerian Government to improve security, social cohesion and promote better migration management through the use of technology and installation of CCTV Cameras at strategic places.”, the Ambassador added.

By Mathew Dadiya, Abuja

The Federal Government and the World Bank will spend a whopping $200 million to improve the knowledge of teachers in the federal technical colleges in the country with the 21st century skills that will digitalise the students.

While the whole $200 million is earmarked for Innovation Development and Effectiveness in the Acquisition of Skills (IDEAS) project, about $30 million will be used to train teachers from technical schools to enable them equip the students with the adequate digital skills.

The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education, Mr.

Andrew David Adejo who was represented by the Director of Technology and Science Education, Mrs. Grace Jakko said 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 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. 

The Permanent Secretary 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.

“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’s  implementors,” she said.

National Project Coordinator, Innovation Development and Effectiveness in the Acquisition of Skills (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

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

However, she 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.