Vice President Kashim Shettima has called for a unified national approach to skills acquisition, emphasizing that siloed efforts are no longer acceptable in the push to equip Nigerians with relevant, future-ready skills.
Speaking at the 7th meeting of the National Council on Skills (NCS) held Tuesday at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, Shettima urged stakeholders across government and the private sector to align their efforts in support of the federal government’s skills development agenda under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope initiative.
“The era of operating in silos is over,” the Vice President declared. “We must move towards a new streamlined workflow that embeds collaboration directly into the process of curriculum development and funding.”
The event, attended by federal and state representatives as well as private sector leaders, focused on strategies to harmonize efforts in addressing the country’s skills gap. Shettima stressed that developing a skilled workforce is not just a campaign promise but a central covenant of the Tinubu administration’s human capital development priorities.
Shettima also commended Kaduna State Governor, Senator Uba Sani, for establishing and chairing the first-ever Kaduna State Council on Skills. He described the initiative as exemplary and urged other subnational governments to replicate the effort to localize and strengthen the national skills development framework.
“This new process isn’t just for our own convenience,” Shettima said. “It is for the ambitious artisan in Kaura Namoda seeking certification, for the mid-career worker in Ebute-Metta, and for the technical colleges across the nation that need funding to become true centres of excellence.”
The Vice President praised members of the council for their active participation and acknowledged the challenges posed by institutional friction in Nigeria’s skills ecosystem.
“And fulfilling such a promise is not contingent on inter-agency harmony; it demands it,” he noted. “We simply cannot build a future-ready workforce on a foundation of division.”
Shettima emphasized that unlocking access to funding and implementing effective skills programs depends on cohesive collaboration among ministries, agencies, and private institutions. He urged the council to stay committed to creating a unified national structure that eliminates fragmentation and indecision.
“We must replace fragmentation with a framework for partnership,” he said. “Let’s move from this room to the work of implementation with a single mind and a shared purpose.”
