The National Board for Technical Education has commended the Katsina Youth Craft Village for producing Nigeria's first Hausa translated technical training manuals, with Executive Secretary Prof. Idris Muhammed Bugaje describing the initiative as a landmark step in making skills education accessible to rural communities.

Bugaje gave the commendation during a courtesy visit by craft village officials to the NBTE office in Kaduna, where the delegation presented newly developed learning materials covering 14 trade areas offered at the centre. He also praised Governor Dikko Umaru Radda for committing over N5 billion to the facility, saying the investment had placed Katsina among the leading states in vocational development in Nigeria.

"Katsina Youth Craft Village is doing very well, and it is very commendable, especially now under the leadership of Dr. Dikko Umaru Radda. I know that previously there was a slowdown, but as soon as this administration came in, it injected a lot of funding, interest, and support, and that is how you have been able to achieve all these marvellous figures," Bugaje told the delegation.

The State Coordinator, Engr. Kabir Abdullahi Kofar Soro, who led the delegation, informed Bugaje that professors and language experts had been engaged to ensure the accuracy of the translated materials, working under the guidance of lead consultant Dr. Shehu Abdulkadir. He argued that translating content into Hausa was essential for reaching communities historically excluded from formal skills training, drawing on how nations such as China had advanced by transmitting technical knowledge in native languages.

"Our people, even in the rural communities, are often left behind in terms of skills education. But if we translate this material into Hausa, the knowledge will reach them more easily," Kofar Soro said.

The State Coordinator disclosed that the craft village was preparing for its second graduation ceremony, expected to be held next month, with 1,662 trainees set to be certified across various trades, compared to 600 graduates in the previous cohort. He added that a tracking mechanism confirmed that between 80 and 85 per cent of previous graduates were now engaged in businesses tied to their trade areas.

Bugaje pledged NBTE's attendance at the forthcoming ceremony and urged Katsina to consider making its standardised trade manuals available for national adoption, citing Kaduna State as a precedent where locally developed materials had received federal endorsement.