Trade Tests Bring N30.7m Income to Labour Ministry

The ministry of labour and employment revealed yesterday that it has made over N30.7 million from test certification service fees.

This is the amount of money the ministry earned internally from issuing trade testing certificates in 2023.

The ministry also said that it had made N65.6 million from the same service between 2019 and 2022.

Dr. Tiza Shaakaa, the deputy director of the department of skills development and certification, gave these figures in Abuja. He also said that the department had trained 23,340 jobless Nigerians in various vocational and technical skills from 2020 to 2022.

He said that in 2020, 3,192 people were trained, while 8,903 people were trained in 2021 and 11,245 people in 2022.

He said that out of these trainees, 100 were given starter packs in 2020, 870 in 2021, and 2,200 in 2022.

Shaakaa said that the training was done to fulfil the ministry’s mandate of creating jobs.

He said that the training was done all over Nigeria according to the budget and in addition to the skills acquisition programmes of the National Directorate of Employment (NDE).

Emmanuel Igbinosun, the director in charge of the permanent secretary’s office in the ministry of labour and employment, said that the workshop was to recognise the important role of the media as a strategic partner in achieving the ministry’s mandate and delivering its services.

He urged journalists to use the opportunity of the workshop to improve their reporting of the ministry’s mandates and activities.

He said, “As one of the eight points of this administration, tackling unemployment is key to the success of this administration, and every action and policy of the government on this needs adequate publicity and public awareness.

I therefore encourage you to work together with the federal government in achieving its agenda through unbiased and informed reporting of the government’s efforts and policies in these areas”.