The Bauchi State Government has solicited support from the Tertiary Education Trust Fund for its state-owned institutions to train technical manpower in agriculture, oil and gas, and other fields critical to national development.

The state governor, Bala Mohammed, who made the appeal during a visit to TETFund on Tuesday in Abuja, stressed the importance of human capital development in confronting challenges of underdevelopment, poverty and unemployment.

A statement released by the Fund on Wednesday quoted Mohammed as noting that the state requires support for its newly-established College of Education, Technical, as well as an intervention in vocational training, where artisans – craftsmen, bricklayers and welders, will be trained.

Mohammed said the College of Education will train agricultural officers that will teach the people of the state how to farm, plant and raise productivity, adding that his government has provided infrastructure in the state university worth over N3 billion to ensure the institution has good roads, water and other amenities.

“We need a lot of assistance from you immediately to put our educational sector on the face of prosperity and growth. And we have really established the institutional framework, the policy thrust and the big political will to be able to leapfrog the area of education so that we can produce our own human capital needs and even export labour.

“We want to have technicians, some labour that is required in the field. In the agricultural field, we want people who will be teaching our farmers what to do in terms of what to do during farming season and so on. And so, we need your support because you did not know about the establishment of this new technical institution, but for our state university, our colleges of education and others, you have done so much,” he said.

On the exodus of health workers to other countries, the governor noted that if Nigerian doctors and teachers are needed abroad, the country should expand its training capacity for such manpower to be used locally and export them.