Nigeria’s social enterprise and skill advocate, iCreate Africa, will hold its sixth edition themed “The Builders Show,” from June 1 – 3, 2023, at the International Conference Centre in Abuja. The event is aimed at revolutionising the construction industry.
According to its Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Bright Jaja, speaking at a media briefing in Lagos, he said the builder show is aims to address the challenges facing the construction industry in Africa, particularly in the area of skills development and capacity building.
“After successfully hosting five editions across the country and impacting thousands of youths, we have recorded significant gains in closing the huge gap between supply and demand of professional skill with the SkillFest event. “Chief among the gains include training artisans on proficiency, professionalism, image, safety, and billing. We have supported several successful building projects by providing artisans with the quality skillset, thereby mitigating certain risks to the advantage of contractors and project owners. The 6th edition will be exponential.”
Speaking further, he said, “The event will feature the African construction skills competition, where teams from Togo, Nigeria, Benin and Ghana will compete in a range of construction related tasks and challenges. In addition, there will be an exhibition, workshops and an awards ceremony to recognise outstanding achievements in construction.”
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In his address, the country business director of Bosch, Samson Ajayi, stated that the engineering company that makes mechanical parts is collaborating with iCreate to empower users with quality, affordable tools for the competition, train them on how to use the tools, and make them know that you can use one tool to achieve more than one output.
The Managing Director, of Berger Paints, Alaba Fagun, in her address, said that partnering with the organisers was to build reputable artisans and to make them build products and showcase new visions because the business world was evolving.
Also speaking, the Head of Projects at GIZ, Tobias Wolfgarten, said “We have a tremendous youth unemployment rate of more than 40% plus underemployment, and at the same time, we have companies that are desperately looking for qualified staff, and this is normally on the medium level of qualifications is plumbers, electricians, and hairdressers, These are the kinds of jobs that we need, and this is where we come in with our activities of matching both sides.”
The sixth edition, which is tailored to address the huge skill gap in the built environment, will be the second time the event will be executed on the ‘Builders Show’ banner. This year’s event is about to create a new genre of entertainment where the new stars are construction artisans across the African continent.