By Shubha Singh

New Delhi, May 8 (IANS) In a step that will strengthen the growing India-Africa partnership, the National Small Industries Corporation (NSIC) of India will build vocational training institutes in 10 African countries to help empower unemployed youth in the continent.

The NSIC will also construct three other institutes on the lines of its Rapid Incubation Centres to prepare youth to set up their own small enterprises, a senior official has said.

The NSIC, which facilitates the growth of small enterprises, has made a name for itself in Africa for its expertise in small and micro industries.

"A 25-member delegation of parliamentarians from different African countries visited NSIC recently. They were impressed with the Rapid Incubation Centre where we train young unemployed or uneducated youth on how to handle small machines," Sunil Tyagi, NSIC's chief manager for international cooperation, told IANS.

Youth learn marketing skills as well as accounting and sourcing credit. After three months of training they are in a position to set up their own micro business, he added.

According to Tyagi, several of the African parliamentarians were keen to replicate similar centres in their countries.

"They were keen to know how these centres could be set up. Some of them said that they will take it up with the government to make a formal request to the NSIC," Tyagi added.

The NSIC has signed Memoranda of Understanding (MOU) with three African countries - the Democratic Republic of Congo, Botswana and Malawi - for the development of micro, small and medium enterprises in these countries.

The corporation enters into an agreement with a local authority in the host country to set up the training programme on a no-profit-no-loss basis, according to the official.

An NSIC team had visited the Congo and had prepared a report on the project in December 2010.

The agreements with the local authorities in Botswana and Malawi were signed in March 2011 and proposals are being processed for preparing a project report, he said.

"The African countries have different requirements, depending on the availability of raw material. The main areas of interest are agro industry, food processing and light industries," according to Tyagi.

NSIC General Manager Satvinder Singh explained: "The corporation has undertaken several small industrial projects in Africa on a turn-key basis. We have done over 160 projects and there is keen interest among the African countries in NSIC's activities. We have a lot of experience and they are interested to see how our expertise could be useful there."

The NSIC is also to help set up vocational training centres in 10 counties in Africa. The institutes are to be developed under the commitment made by India during the first India-Africa Forum Summit held in 2008.

Under the joint action plan agreed at the summit, the location for the vocational centres was to be identified by the African Union and its decision was conveyed to the Indian government in December last year.

The vocational centres are to be located in Ethiopia, Rwanda, Burkina Faso, Gambia, Burundi, Gabon, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Egypt and Libya.

They are part of the India-Africa partnership with its focus on capacity building and human resource development.

NSIC teams have visited all the 10 countries and are currently working on a detailed project report, according to Tyagi.

It is expected that the projects could be implemented by the end of 2011 or early next year, he added.