Nigeria's drive to equip young people with practical skills may be entering a new phase as the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) and the Industrial Training Fund (ITF) explore a partnership that could expand access to vocational and technical training across the country.
The proposed partnership is focused on giving artisans and young Nigerians interested in skilled trades an opportunity to learn through practical training, with expatriate instructors involved in the programme and participants working towards internationally recognised certifications.
A recent visit to one of the training centres by the ITF Director of Special Duties, Kayode Alakija, showed the progress being made by the trainees after just three weeks of training.
Alakija, who said he had been involved in the project from the beginning, said he was impressed by the transformation of the workshop and the work being produced by the trainees.
At the tiling section, trainees had recreated a real-life toilet environment, installed a water closet and tiled the surrounding area. The exercise was designed to give them an idea of the kind of work they would face on actual construction sites.
One of the trainees, Abusuke Badare, who is undergoing a Level One Diploma in Tiling, said she was surprised by how much she had been able to accomplish within a short period of practical training.
The carpentry workshop was also busy with trainees producing benches, racks, rafters and roofing structures.
A Level One Diploma trainee in carpentry, Mukta Oloriegbe, said the programme had taught him skills that many artisans sometimes overlook, particularly workplace safety and the proper use of protective equipment.
The training is not limited to carpentry and tiling. Participants are also being trained in painting and decoration, drylining, bricklaying and block making.
In the carpentry workshop, British tutor Andy Cranham said the trainees had moved from learning basic butt joints to constructing truss rafters and hand-cut roofs within three weeks.
He said the trainees had mainly worked with hand tools, helping them understand the basic techniques of the trade instead of relying heavily on power tools.
At the painting and decoration section, participants are learning how to prepare surfaces, deal with dampness and water damage, mix colours, apply wallpaper and carry out decorative work. The drylining trainees have also been constructing partition walls, windows and doors.
The programme comes at a time when Nigeria is facing serious challenges in education, employment and skills development.
UNICEF says more than 10 million primary school-age children in Nigeria are out of school, while 75 per cent of children aged seven to 14 cannot read a simple sentence or solve a basic mathematics problem.
The National Bureau of Statistics reported an unemployment rate of 4.3 per cent in the second quarter of 2024, while informal employment remained as high as 93 per cent.
With such a large informal economy, many Nigerians depend on trades, apprenticeships, small businesses and self-employment to make a living. This has increased the need for training that gives people skills they can immediately put to work.
NELFUND has already indicated its intention to extend its financing beyond traditional university education.
In November 2025, NELFUND Managing Director, Akintunde Sawyerr, announced plans to extend the Fund's interest-free loan scheme to Nigerians interested in vocational and skills acquisition programmes.
At the time, Sawyerr said NELFUND had received 1.067 million loan applications, with 624,000 students benefiting. He also disclosed that N65 billion had been paid directly to 239 government-owned institutions, while another N51 billion had been provided as upkeep allowances.
By August 2026, NELFUND had reportedly received 1.6 million applications and disbursed more than N322 billion across 319 beneficiary institutions.
The possible involvement of vocational and technical training in the Fund's financing structure could make a significant difference for Nigerians who want to become carpenters, tilers, electricians, plumbers, painters, bricklayers and other skilled professionals but cannot afford the cost of quality training.
Alakija said the ITF was looking at replicating the training model across the country's geopolitical zones. He also said artisans and master craftsmen from ITF-accredited centres would be exposed to the system so they could learn how to establish and run effective practical training facilities.
He acknowledged the possibility that some beneficiaries could eventually leave Nigeria for better opportunities abroad but said trained workers could also pass their knowledge to others.
The aim, he said, is to produce thousands of skilled artisans in different trades every year over several years, creating a pool of competent workers capable of meeting demand within the country.
The World Bank's February 2026 Human Capital Index Plus assessment also highlighted the economic value of investment in education and skills, saying that increasing effective years of schooling to 12 years could raise labour earnings by about 20 per cent over the long term.
For NELFUND and ITF, the challenge now is to take what appears to be working at the training centres and make it available to many more Nigerians.
If properly funded and expanded, the partnership could help young Nigerians acquire skills that can provide them with jobs, businesses and a means of earning a living, while also helping Nigeria build a stronger pool of skilled workers.
For a country that has spent years debating the gap between education and employment, putting practical skills at the centre of training could prove to be one of the more important steps towards closing that gap.
