From Local Trades to Global Standards: ITF’s SUPA Success Story

Across Nigeria’s informal economy, a quiet crisis has continued to threaten local livelihoods — foreign competition.

Skilled tradesmen from beyond Nigeria’s borders now dominate construction sites across the country, taking over trades that were once largely the preserve of Nigerian hands, including tiling, electrical wiring, bricklaying and carpentry, among others.
The development has had devastating consequences, with many Nigerian artisans abandoning their hard-earned trades for commercial motorcycle riding, while others, due to a lack of jobs and means of livelihood, are drifting into crime.
Determined to reverse the trend, President Bola Tinubu, from the earliest days of his administration, charged the Industrial Training Fund, ITF, with the task of retooling Nigerian artisans to meet world-class standards, restore their competitiveness and reduce the country’s dependence on imported labour.
The objective is to build a nation where jobs and wealth are created by Nigerian hands.
Out of that directive was born the Skill Up Artisans, SUPA, programme, which is now three years into transforming the fortunes of Nigerian tradesmen across the country.
Our correspondent, who visited some artisan workshops across the Federal Capital Territory, put the SUPA programme to the test by speaking with beneficiaries to determine whether, three years on, its promise has been fulfilled.
Some beneficiaries of the SUPA programme described it as an eye-opener in their various fields of endeavour.
One of them, Chukwudi Okafor, a tiler residing in the Abuja Municipal Area Council, AMAC, said that after undergoing the intensive ITF SUPA programme, he had secured jobs with notable construction companies in Abuja as a result of the technical and international best practices he acquired from the trainers.
According to him, tiling has become easier for him following the capacity-building training.
Another beneficiary and graduate of Mechanical Engineering from the Federal University of Technology, FUT, Minna, Niger State, Eniola Aina, said she acquired international best-practice experience, particularly in the maintenance and repair of electric cars.
She stated that following the training, she secured a consultancy appointment with a foreign company in Canada, making her self-reliant.
On his part, a bricklayer, Abdullahi Yakubu, who also benefited from the ITF SUPA programme, commended the agency and President Bola Tinubu for upgrading the skills of tradesmen across Nigeria.
Yakubu, who lives in Kuje Area Council of the FCT, explained that the techniques he acquired during the training had placed him above his counterparts in the FCT, enabling him to secure more lucrative jobs due to increased professional productivity resulting from the ITF SUPA capacity training.
Other artisans who benefited from the ITF SUPA programme described the international certification attached to the programme as a welcome development and called for more initiatives to further empower artisans across the country.
Speaking on the SUPA programme, the Director-General of the Industrial Training Fund, ITF, Dr. Afiz Oluwatoyin Ogun, said the programme had so far trained 200,000 Nigerian artisans from the 36 states of the federation and the FCT.
He added that another 100,000 beneficiaries would be added for the 2026 batch of the programme.
Dr. Ogun stated that beneficiaries were selected after due online registration and screening by the ITF.
According to him, apart from the training, beneficiaries of the programme would receive international certification, which would also facilitate the export of skilled tradesmen, improve Nigeria’s GDP and boost national economic development.
Dr. Ogun, who noted that the ITF was engaging the best international educational institutions and experts for the training, said the Fund was also collaborating with other agencies, particularly the National Orientation Agency, towards inculcating the spirit of patriotism among beneficiaries of the SUPA programme.
Commenting on the SUPA programme, the Executive Secretary of the National Board for Technical Education, Prof. Idris Bugaje, said handing over the regulation of Nigeria’s informal skills sector to the ITF would go a long way towards actualising the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Bola Tinubu’s administration on skills development.
Prof. Bugaje, who identified skills acquisition as key to job creation, said the NBTE would continue to support the ITF towards achieving the objectives of its SUPA programme.