The Director-General of the National Directorate of Employment (NDE), Silas Agara, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Federal Polytechnic, Ayede, Oyo State, to continue the use of its Skills Acquisition Centre in Onipanu, Ogbomoso, for the training of students over the next two years.
Agara disclosed this on Tuesday when he received the Rector of the Polytechnic, Dr. Taofeek Abdul-Hameed, in his office in Abuja, the nation’s capital.
He said the agreement aligned with the Federal Government’s Renewed Hope Employment Initiative, aimed at training and empowering Nigerian youths to acquire skills and become self-reliant.
“NDE and our supervising Ministry of Labour are poised to execute the policy of the Federal Government under the Renewed Hope Employment Initiative of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to train and empower Nigerian youth to learn a skill and become self-reliant and even employers of labour,” Agara said.
He commended the Polytechnic’s management for seeking collaboration with the NDE, saying, “The centre was released to you before, but I said that it is better we sign an MoU and meet virtually and now physically towards nation-building.”
The Rector, Abdul-Hameed, in his remarks, expressed appreciation to the NDE for granting the Polytechnic access to the training centre.
He said, “When former President Muhammadu Buhari established the Polytechnic in 2021, we were informed that we could write to the NDE to use its Skills Acquisition Centre in Ayede.
“We wrote during the administration of the former DG, but this DG, Honourable Silas Agara, engaged us in a virtual meeting until we all democratically agreed to the conditions for the MoU.”
The Rector, who spoke on behalf of the Governing Board Chairman, Hon. Yakubu Datti, and the institution’s management, staff, and students, said the gesture would go a long way in preparing students for future self-employment.
