Founder, Gtext Global, Stephen Akintayo, has decried non-availability of skilled manpower in the country. He urged employers of labour to organise training programmes for their new intakes, saying: “Nigeria has a huge skill gap in many levels.”
Speaking, yesterday, during the unveiling of Stephen Akintayo Foundation’s logo and book launch in Lagos, he said the percentage of unqualified personnel was on the rise, and it was affecting productivity and economy
He said: “The people who know the job do not exist. You would have to train them. As you go higher, you can start employing quality workers.”
Echoing the issue of less-skilled labour and how to abate the situation, Akintayo pointed that philanthropy on the African continent was hinged highly on benevolence rather than impact.
“The major problem in Africa is that we are not strategic with our charity and we have made people poorer because of goodwill,” he said.
To this effect, he stressed the need for more entrepreneurial, mentorship and vocational training programmes nationwide.
While hinting on opening of the Stephen Akintayo University, which is an online entrepreneurship and mentorship platform on different business opportunities, he affirmed it would groom more professionals.
“In the university, we have people like Les Brown, Brian Tracy, myself, and will be teaching over a thousand courses on different business opportunities. Our vision in the next 10 years is that one million people would have passed through this online university,” he said.
He explained that his foundation has been in the business of organising training programmes for years, within and outside the country.
“So, in the last eight years, we have trained over 100 thousand people and we have had the training in over 20 cities in Nigeria. Outside Nigeria, we have also trained in more than twenty cities; Houston, New York, Dallas, Baltimore, UK, London, Dubai, Ghana, Rwanda, Kenya. It is the largest indicated event in the world,” he added.
Committed to improving the standard of living of the indigent masses, Akintayo added, “the foundation is partnering with over 25 orphanages and providing care for victims of Boko Haram, through the provision of relief materials, food, financial grants for children, students and entrepreneurs.”
The Stephen Akintayo Foundation emanated from Infinity Foundation with three students and a group of 13, who donated N3,000 each to impact lives of residents of Galilee Orphanage in Ibadan, Nigeria.
