National Board for Technical Education has called for replacement of Industrial Training Fund with National Skills Fund as a means of funding skills development in the country.

Executive Secretary of NBTE, Prof. IDRIS BUGAJE, who made the call at a news conference in Kaduna, said this was part of the resolutions reached at the seventh Industry Stakeholders’ Consultation on Skills Development held recently.

BUGAJE said that to avoid over taxation of industries, the stakeholders recommended that ITF be transformed into NSF to fund and support skills development. 

He said the proposed NSF should not be a trainer or certificate awarding body.

According to him, the idea is to refocus ITF to fund skills development, that is, to provide funds for skills training and support training of national skills qualification verifiers and assessors.

BUGAJE added that the stakeholders also proposed an executive bill on NSQ framework to be sent to the National Assembly for passage.