The Federal Government has approved N3.6bn to support tailors under the Industrial Training Fund’s Skill Up Artisans Programme as part of efforts to strengthen Nigeria’s informal sector, create jobs and produce globally competitive artisans.
The Director-General and Chief Executive of the Industrial Training Fund, Afiz Ogun, disclosed this on Wednesday in Abuja during the nationwide screening of applicants for the 2026 edition of the programme.
Ogun said the screening exercise was designed to ensure that only genuine artisans benefited from the initiative, noting that successful applicants would either be prepared for international employment opportunities, linked directly with employers or enrolled in a structured business incubation programme.
He said, “For this year, we are incubating businesses for tailors because they constitute a large number of participants. The President has approved N3.6bn for this initiative.”
The ITF boss explained that the screening exercise was more than a document verification process, describing it as an opportunity to assess applicants’ skills, commitment and readiness for training.
He said, “We are screening them because some people will say they are artisans, but they are not artisans. Some people just want to come and collect the Federal Government money and go. They will not participate in the training. We want real artisans who are ready to scale up and improve their skills.”
According to him, the ongoing exercise marks the first phase of the 2026 SUPA programme, with about 200,000 artisans expected to benefit nationwide.
Ogun said the ITF had already trained hundreds of thousands of artisans since the programme was launched in 2024, describing SUPA as one of President Bola Tinubu’s flagship initiatives to reposition Nigeria’s technical and vocational workforce.
He said the President conceived the programme after observing the growing dominance of foreign artisans in Nigeria’s informal economy.
