Nigerian Govt urged to privatise training centres

President-muhammadu-buhari-1

President Muhammadu Buhari

President Muhammadu Buhari

Mr Adewole Adeniran, the Provost, Federal Training Centre (FTC), Lagos, on Thursday urged the Federal Government to consider privatisation of the six FTCs in the country.

Adeniran told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos that privatisation would enable more inflow of trainers from ministries, departments, agencies, as well as the private sector.

The six FTCs, according to him, are located in the geo-political zones, being based in Lagos, Kaduna, Ilorin, Calabar, Enugu and Maiduguri.

He said that the government needed to look urgently at the state of the centres, with a view to making it achieve more.

“Government should as a matter of urgency look into the funding of FTC, because a child of over 61 years is an adult already.

“If by this time we are still a glorified secondary school, then it is not good enough.

“Government needs to do a lot more to improve the status of the centres.

“The enabling law establishing the centres is still not there; and if the centre was put up in 1957, 62 years later, the school still does not have an enabling law. I don’t think it is good enough.

“Government needs to look at that. There is need to redevelop the infrastructure of the centres; the decay is a problem in all the centres,” he said.

The provost said government could also make the FTC a training hub for all civil servants, irrespective of cadre, if properly developed.

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“We are talking of conserving foreign exchange for the government and conserving money for the government. We can do that by improving facilities here.

“A lot of money can be saved if government looks inward; promotion examination and other examination can be done in the centre,“ he said.

The provost said that the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) visited the centre for accreditation to upgrade the institution to the level it prescribed for such institutions.

“We hope that with the approval of NBTE, things will change for the better; things in the area of staff, infrastructure, autonomy and funding,” he said.

Adeniran said that the centre had problem of human resource, noting that there was need for adequate personnel for it to be able to function more effectively and efficiently.

“Funding is low compared to our needs; we are daily making request for additional funding. Our state of infrastructure needs a lot of improvement.

“The institution has about 65 staff — 27 academic staff and other support staff — but we still do not have enough,“ he said.

Adeniran urged the Federal Government to increase funding for education to bring about commensurate development.

“If you are trying to develop physical infrastructure without commensurate development of capacity and manpower, we are calling for trouble in the future.

“Succession in the service, even in private sector, is going to be problematic in the future, if these things are not properly addressed,” he said.

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