Nigerian Government Tasks Technical Colleges On Environmental Safeguard Measures

Temitope Mustapha, Abuja

The Federal Government has charged managements of technical colleges in the country to prioritize environmental and social safeguard towards enhancing effective implementation of the World Bank-assisted innovation and skills acquisition project in Nigeria.

Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, gave the charge at a workshop on Environmental and Social Safeguard Screening and other preliminary activities for Technical Colleges Implementing Innovation Development and Effectiveness in the Acquisition of Skills (IDEAS) Project held in Abuja.

Adamu noted that environmental and social management was critical for effectiveness and sustainability of the project in line with the Nigerian environmental policies and the World Bank’s environmental and social policy.

According to him, ” As important as developmental and expansionist projects are for human development, what is of equal importance for consideration is ensuring environmental and human protection in the process of executing projects. The environmental and social screening of sub-project marks the beginning of the Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) or Environmental and Social Management Plan (ESMP) processes.”

Speaking further, the minister emphasised the need to properly train Environmental and Social Officers as well as Project Managers of the participating technical colleges on how to carry out environmental and social screening of sub projects in the colleges.

“The essence of the IDEAS Project is to address the current deficiencies in the Education system that has made a large number of school leavers’ unemployed. He urged Nigerian youths to take full advantage of the opportunities offered by the project,” he added.

Recall that an estimated 40 Technical Colleges in the country, would benefit from the project which also has a technical teacher training component.