By Moses Akaigwe
The Federal Government on Friday in Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti state, inaugurated a modern Automotive Training Centre described as one of the achievements of the out-going Muhammadu Buhari administration in the auto sector.
Built by the National Automotive Design and Development Council (NADDC), the Ado-Ekiti facility features top class training equipment and modules, and is the first to be commissioned out of a total of 21 Automotive Training Centres being constructed across the country.
Located in all the six political zones of the country to ensure equity and national spread, the 21 training centres were conceived by NADDC in the discharge of its responsibility of promoting auto-engineering training, skills acquisition and capacity building in the auto industry.
Speaking before commissioning the well equipped centre, the Minister of Industry Trade and Investment, Otunba Niyi Adebayo, disclosed that the Automotive Training Centre projects dove-tail into the goals of National Automotive Industry Development Plan (NAIDP) 2023 approved by the Federal Executive Council on Wednesday, May 10..
Adebayo disclosed that as contained in the Auto Policy document, the training centres represent the efforts to boost infrastructural and human capacity development in order to address some of the challenges in the automotive sub-sector of the economy.
“Let me equally re-emphasize here that the Federal Government plans to build more automotive training centres to provide job opportunities, enhance technology transfer, boost economic activities, enrich our country technologically, as well as cushion the effect of joblessness, and indolence ,amongst other societal ills,” Adebayo, who was the first civilian governor of Ekiti State, said at the ceremony.
The recently approved policy, according to the Industry Minister, would lead to an increase in local production of vehicles, an increase in local content, and make electric vehicles account for about 30 per cent of locally produced automobiles.
It is also aimed at generating about one million jobs, the Minister informed guests at the ceremony, including the Ewi of Ado-Ekiti, Oba Rufus Adejugbe (and the Ewi in Council), as well as auto industry stakeholders and members of the mechanics association in the state.
Also present was Obiora Nweke, CEO of CTS Automotive and representative of the German manufacturers of the range of state-of-the-art equipment and modules in the training centre.
Earlier in his remarks, the Director General of the NADDC, Jelani Aliyu, had explained that the Ado-Ekiti centre and the 20 others represent the fulfillment of NADDC’s statutory mandate of ensuring sustainable development of the automotive industry in Nigeria using local human and material resources.
Aliyu stated further, “Council constructed 21 training centres that cover the six geo-political zones which include: Kogi, Bauchi, Enugu, Osun, Yobe, Gombe, Zamfara, Lagos, Jigawa, Akwa-Ibom, Plateau, Kano, Kastina, Kebbi, Ebonyi, Niger, Anambra, Abia, Ogun, Sokoto and Ekiti states.
“We are here today to commission NADDC Automotive Training Centre, Ado-Ekiti which has received its training equipment/tools and have been installed.
“It is noteworthy that the significance of this training centre is one of the success stories of this present administration. The project will not only provide job opportunities for the youths, but enhance skills among graduates / undergraduates, and provide needed industrial infrastructure in the state.”
Like the Industry Minister, Aliyu, emphasised the importance of the NAIDP 2023 as approved by the Federal Government, stating that it is expected to aggressively build on the successes achieved so far in the Nigerian automotive industry.
He stated, “The new NAIDP would strategically provide outstandingly competitive fiscal and non-fiscal incentives that automotive industry manufacturers/producers, assemblers, investors, developers and all relevant stakeholders, need.
“The policy equally aims to increase the local production of 40 percent local content and attain 30 percent locally produced electric vehicles. The plan would also generate jobs, enforce patronage of locally produced vehicles by federal, state and local government.
The governor of Ekiti state, Abiodun Oyebanji, who was represented by the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry, Ayidele Paul Adeyanju, commended Otunba Adebayo and the NADDC for locating one of the centres in the state.
The Permanent Secretary urged the youths in Ekiti to take advantage of the training facility to acquire vehicle production and maintenance skills in order to be self-reliant.
He lauded the idea of setting up Automotive Training Centres, which he said, would pave the way for the production of made-in-Nigeria vehicles of international standards “at very competitive prices, using local human and material resources, including indigenous technologies.”
Adeyanju was hopeful that the activities of the Automotive Council would earn Nigeria a pride of place among auto manufacturing nations which will help conserve Nigeria’s foreign exchange.
The Permanent Secretary assured of the state government’s commitment to providing conducive environment for investments, including ensuring ease of doing business, easy access to land, registration fee waivers, and the automation of PAYE {pay as you earn} system, among others.
He, however, recalled that about three hectares of land was made available for the establishment of a mechanic village in Ado-Ekiti following discussions with the NADDC many years ago.
The Permanent Secretary, therefore, made a strong case for the project to be revived and completed.
Both Adeyanju and the Ewi of Ado-Ekiti showered encomiums on Adebayo for his contributions to the development of Ekiti state, as the first civilian governor, and now as the Industry Minister.
“You have indeed left your footprints in the sand of time with this legacy project (the auto training centre), and will continue to be proud of you,” the Permanent Secretary told Otunba Adebayo on behalf of Gov. Abiodun Oyebanji.
Guests were informed at the inauguration that the construction of the 21 NADDC Automotive Training Centres across parts of the country was initiated by the Council as one of its interventions to solve the problem of dearth of skills in the automotive sector.
Conceived as a source of internally generated revenue {IGR}, the training centres will encourage the use of standardised automotive workshops and garages for modern training delivery and maintenance of motor vehicles nationwide.
In addition to training participants to maintain and service modern vehicles, the centres will also train them to manufacture spare parts.
w