A PERFORMANCE SURVEY OF THE MANDATE FOR TRAINING AND MANPOWER DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA: A CASE STUDY OF INDUSTRIAL TRAIN

1. A PERFORMANCE SURVEY OF THE MANDATE FOR TRAINING AND MANPOWER DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA: A CASE STUDY OF INDUSTRIAL TRAINING FUND IN NIGERIA. Igberaese, Francis Ilenloa Department of Business Administration, Institute of Continuing Education, Benin City, Nigeria. e-mail: fatherfrancis4life@yahoo.com Tel: +2348075079509 and Imafidon, Adesuwa Department of Business Administration, Institute of Continuing Education, Benin City, Nigeria. e-mai:kenkenson2010@yahoo.com Tel: +2348053445799 A Paper for the Conference Research Journal of the ooiJunior Academy

2. ABSTRACT The research focused on the performance of manpower training institutions and manpower needs in Africa, using the Industrial Training Fund (ITF); a key manpower training institution in Nigeria as a case study. It was established in 1971 with a mandate to train manpower for Nigerian industries and other organizations. It was revealed that many problems, some of which are structural and institutional failures outside the operation of the Fund, have militated against this mandate. Despite the revelation by the survey that Nigeria has insufficient, ineffective and inefficient manpower, the Fund was still adjudged to have performed well in the discharge of its mandate, given the prevailing situations. Among the recommendations is that the government should increase funding to the Fund to enable it effectively discharge its mandate.

3. INTRODUCTION Organizations do not behave on their own; personnel and high manpower are needed to make things work. Hence countries with low and insufficient manpower, established institutions with different mandates to train manpower. An example of such institutions is the Nigeria Industrial Training Fund (ITF), in order to maximize output or minimize cost for profit maximization, which according to Anyanwu et al (2004) is the basic assumption underlaying the behaviour of firms.

4. OBJECTIVES

5. HYPOTHESES H01: The efforts to ensure that adequate trained manpower for industrial development in Nigeria is successful. H02: The Industrial Training Fund (ITF) has greatly impacted on manpower development in Nigeria.

6. LITERATURE REVIEW A Brief History and Philosophical Foundation of Industrial Training Fund (ITF): This is occasioned by the scarce training experience of Nigeria and the Civil war between 1967 and 1970 that lost many lives, as well as the need to provide training facilities of persons employed in commerce and industry. It was established by the decree 47 section 6(1) of 8th October 1971 (Echu, 1996; Akanji, 2007; Ogbuoki, 2008; Ari, 2009).

7. Problems and Challenges of ITF: Funding (Wapmuk, 2009) Inaptitude of State Government to train staff. Unhealthy competition from private training consultant Lack of vehicles (Dakwak, 2007)

8. METHODOLOGY Pure empirical survey (Odia & Igberaese, 2009; Ihua, 2009;) Slicing through the organization and purposeful sampling (Jankowiz, 2005). Instrument of questionnaire in 500 population Askhia & Ayeni, 2009). Percentage analysis at 55% level of significance to maximize confidence interval and minimize errors.

9. DISCUSSIONS AND RESULTS Insufficient, ineffective and inefficient manpower development in Nigeria (76%) Positive ITF impact on industrial manpower training in Nigeria since inception (71%) Confirmed structural and institutional problem militating against ITF since inception: Electricity and power failure (96%) Insufficient and inefficient transport system (86%) Tribalism and general corruption (88%) Confirmed problems and challenges of manpower training and development in Nigeria: Lack of funding for existing training institutions in Nigeria (77%) Inaptitude of State Government towards staff training (56%) Economic meltdown (78%). Lagos alone contributes about 61.53% of ITF levy collection, deserving special status. Under-performing area offices.

10. RECOMMENDATIONS More funds for ITF Bailout for companies Staff training for State Governments Special status for Lagos Retrenchment of some Area Offices Aggressive marketing strategies and philosophical campaign

11. CONCLUSION Manpower training and development deserve the best attention in Nigeria because of the country�s unpleasant experiences in the past. The establishment of ITF in 1971 has gone a long way to help but not enough to ensure sufficiency. Efforts should therefore be made to strengthen this organization in order to meet the challenges before it, especially in the area of funding.

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