The Industrial Training Fund ( ITF) , has surpassed N48.873billion revenue projected for 2023 fiscal year by raking in N51.344billion as at third quarter of the year.
This is as the training agency, projected N66.473billion as revenue generation in 2024, N69.744billion in 2025 and N73.2billion in 2026 .
Submissions to this effect were made by the Director General of the Fund, Dr. Afiz Ogun at an interface with Senate’s joint committees on Finance, Appropriation, National Planning, Local and Foreign Debts on Tuesday at the National Assembly, Abuja .
The ITF boss who made the submissions through the Director of Finance and Accounts , Hajia Safiya Mansoor, said out of the generated revenue, N14billion had been remitted into consolidated Revenue Fund just as 50% of the revenue, used for reimbursement of employers of labour.
According to her, ITF three sources of revenues are training fund, cost fee and other incomes .
In beefing up revenue generation for the agency, the ITF DG, informed the committee members that National Artisans Registration and Development Programme would soon be put in place for registration of artisans across the country and facilitating their operations corporately .
“Within my short stay in Nigeria , i observed that artisan jobs in the country, have been taken over by Beninoises, Ghanaians and Togolese which should not be so, because there is no job Nigerians cannot do.
“To stem the tide , ITF under my leadership , would soon put in place , National Artisans Registration and Development Programme to register our artisans and positioned them for jobs due to them “, he said .
He added that “ITF is a big organisation with 16 Directors, two head offices, 41 Area Offices, 5 Skills and Training Centres, 14 Vocational Skills and Training Centres etc”.
The joint committee looking into projections made by the executive for 2022 to 2026 Medium Term Expenditure Framework ( MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP), however tasked the agency to direct its finance department to tidy up slight discrepancies observed in the reports submitted to it.
The observed discrepancies, as stated by the Chairman of the Committee, Senator Sani Musa (APC Niger East ), must be corrected this week before committee submits its report to the Senate.
Olusola Akintonde
