A civil society organisation, (CSO) has cited the reason why Dangote Refinery hired 11,000 trained workers from India while ignoring young people from Nigeria and other African countries.
The CSO, Sub-Saharan African Skills and Apprenticeship Stakeholders Network, (SASASNET), which stated this in an issued communiqu yesterday, signed by its Secretary-General, Ousman Sillah, following its two-day conference in Abuja, cited the reason was because young people from Nigeria lacked the necessary abilities to do the task.
The Network said that it had decided that each African nation should create a national framework for skill certification that would facilitate labour migration across the continent.
In thecommuniqu, SASASNET noted that it observed, The need for SASASNET to engage in vigorous public awareness and engagement to change the negative perception of the public on the value of skills and apprenticeship; the Dangote Refinery in Nigeria under construction has engaged over 11,000 workforce from India, while our youths lack the required skills to be engaged; Africa should avoid a repeat of the same in the upcoming $25 billion Trans-Saharan Gas Pipeline traversing the Gulf of Guinea to Europe; the absence of National Occupational Standards in many countries.
Speaking further on its observations, the network noted that the absence of pathways to recognise skills obtained in the informal sector in most sub-Saharan African countries, including Nigeria, has led to a lack of opportunities for skilled labour migration across African regions.
It also fingered the negative social perception of skilled workers alongside the weak interface that exists between trade unions/associations and skills/apprenticeship development.
