NECA commends Governor Sule for spearheading silent revolution in Nasarawa

…announces Microsoft basic AI training for youths, civil servants

The Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Assembly (NECA), has commended Governor Abdullahi Sule for spearheading a silent revolution in Nasarawa State, delivering infrastructure, as well as turning the state into an emerging hub for solid minerals and industrial development.

Director General of NECA, Mr. Adewale Smatt Oyerinde, laid the commendation when he led a delegation on a courtesy visit at the Government House on Thursday.

According to the DG, the recent commissioning of landmark projects by President Ahmed Bola Tinubu in Nasarawa State were testaments to the Governor’s visionary leadership and commitment to infrastructural development.

Oyerinde said the recent recognitions by both the African Summit in London, where Governor Sule received the Outstanding Public Service Excellence Award, as well as the Governor of the Year Award in Solid Minerals by the Daily Independent newspaper, were acknowledgement of his strides in diversifying the economy of the state, attracting investment and making Nasarawa an emerging hub for solid minerals and industrial development.

NECA, a formal platform for private sector employers to engage with the government on socio-economic and labour policies, equally commended Governor Sule on his inroads in education and human capital development.

Oyerinde particularly lauded Governor Sule’s administration giant strides in education and skills development, describing the recent accreditation of the Wing Commander Abdullahi Ibrahim Vocational Institute by the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) as a major milestone.

“The recent accreditation of the Wing Commander Abdullahi Ibrahim Vocational Institute by the NBTE is a major milestone. It reinforces your commitment to building world-class institutions that will empower young people with skills for the future,” he said.

The NECA DG emphasized that the world is tilting towards technical skills development, adding that the biggest investment by any government would be to impact meaningful technical skills on its citizens.

“Those are the biggest investments that will transit not only this generation but coming generations. Infrastructure may decay, even bridges would need remodelling but skills, they transit the generation for now and we want to commend your investment in the institute.

“We also commend the support you are giving to the Wing Commander Abdullahi Ibrahim Vocational Institute. It has shown that the future for Nasarawa State, we can confirm, is quite bright. We believe that while the corporate worlds continue to shrink, the future of even our country, even in Europe and America, is technical skills development,” he added.

He singled out the summer ICT programme for children ongoing at the vocational institute as another silent revolution.

“We saw the children, and we were tempted to say that we were going to start something like that in Lagos at our centre. Because the biggest investment any government can make is the investment in skills development of its young ones. You are not only developing the young ones, you are developing the underteens. We saw the 5, 6, 7 year old focusing on learning skills,” he said.

Oyerinde said NECA was in the state to further deepen the existing partnership and create a platform for engagement with Nasarawa State.

He disclosed that, NECA has secured a training opportunity through collaboration with international employers’ organisations, with the Assembly supposed to train 100, 000 young Nigerians on AI fluency to be undertaken by ICT giants, Microsoft.

“We will be extending this training to the Institute, all primary six, JSSIII, SSSIII students and all civil servants in Nasarawa State. We have this project sponsored by the international organisation of employers, they call it AI fluency, to learn basic AI. We were fortunate through NECA, out of the 5 countries in Africa, to get that scheme. We are supposed to train 100, 000 young Nigerians free of charge. We will be extending this opportunity to all these young ones in Nasarawa State. It’s a self pace module. When they finish, they will get Microsoft cerficate in basic AI,” he said.

Responding, Governor Abdullahi Sule, appreciated the partnership and collaboration between Nasarawa State and NECA, especially after the establishment of the Wing Commander Abdullahi Ibrahim Vocational Institute in Lafia.

“This is something that I have always admired, and this is one area where I am so happy that finally, we have set up an institute where we attract this kind of relationship and partnership. We strongly believe in skills acquisition and technical education because we believe very strongly that that is the future. You can acquire any kind of education that you need, but if you don’t have a skill to back it up, there are going to be a lot of hurdles to cross,” he stated.

Governor Sule used the opportunity of the visit to highlight the new foundation his administration is laying in the education sector, with the recent recruitment of 781 new secondary school teachers strictly based on merit.

“We are setting a new foundation for education in Nasarawa State. After our baseline survey, we decided to engage new teachers purely on merit. They were made to undergo a CBT, write an examination and also face an interview panel. It was a rigorous exercise aimed at recruting only the best qualified teachers. We wanted to get 1000 out of the over 4000 that came for the screening exercise but only got 781,” he said.

While welcoming the training opportunity presented by NECA, the Governor said his administration would always utilise training opportunities for the betterment of the citizens of the state.

He expressed optimism that the training would afford the beneficiaries to learn basic AI skills.
“AI has done so many things and would continue to do positive things. Sometimes, people drive AI to do negative things, like we can drive technology to do negative things. But the positive things that would come out of AI far outweigh the negative impact,” he said.

Governor Sule further appreciated the collaboration between NECA and ITF which is beneficial to Nasarawa State, with NECA sponsoring some programmes at the vocational institute.