Honourable James Faleke, a three-term member of Nigeria’s House of Representatives in charge of Ikeja Federal Constituency has said that technical/vocational education remained very vital for national development.
Faleke said this during his speech at a recently concluded empowerment programme for his constituents held at Ogba, Lagos.
According to him, Nigeria was too import dependent hence the inability of the nation’s economy to grow at an expected rate.
“Nigeria is highly import-dependent leading to absence of producing industries that should have in turn guaranteed jobs for our teeming youths who keep graduating from our higher institutions, year after year”.
“Our country’s economy is going down daily hence we desperately need to catapult manufacturing in order to be rich enough to improve on our GDP and turn the economy around”, he said.
Faleke also admonished parents to encourage their children to attain productive skills by studying courses that could make them self-dependent after graduation.
“I haven’t claimed that studying History or English is bad o, all I’m saying is that technical courses guarantee that your child or ward is self-sufficient and independent in the future”, he added.
The programme was put together by the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency (SMEDAN) in conjunction with Hon. James Faleke and its highlight was the presentation of certificates to about 1,500 trainees who went through skills’ acquisition in several vocations for self- empowerment.