Institute pledges to train Transportation Professionals 

The pioneer chairman of the newly inaugurated CILT Cross River State branch, Dr. Chijioke Ukadike, made the pledge shortly after being sworn-in to office in Calabar, the capital of Cross River State, southern Nigeria.

Dr. Ukadike, who is a chartered fellow of CILT as well as a seasoned transport and logistics professional with a PhD in Transport Management Technology, was elected as the pioneer chairman of the Cross River State branch.

Ukadike said, “the beautiful thing about CILT inaugurating a branch in Cross River State, when we had a chapter before now, is that we are here to build capacity; to build the capacity of Cross River State indigenes, who will take advantage of the transport and logistics fields.”

According to Ukadike, CILT “comes with training and certification of professionals. The certification is recognized internationally across more than one hundred countries and these include the United States of America, Canada, and Australia as well as Hong Kong.

“A lot of people in the U.S and Canada are working with CILT advance or international Diploma in Logistics and Transport. So, it is recognized everywhere you go and that is what we bring to Cross River State,”the chairman stated.

While urging young people to take advantage of the new opportunity to acquire training and certification, he expressed the preparedness of the institute to collaborate with the Cross River State Government, public and private corporate organisations.

Earlier, the Vice President, East and Fellow of CILT, Dr. Peter Borlo congratulated the newly inaugurated 16 officers of the Cross River branch for their victory at the institute’s maiden election.

Borlo urged the officers to “engage with the Cross River State government such as the executive and legislators to enshrine professionalism in the transport and logistics industry for the benefit of the people”.

He further suggested the inclusion of transport and logistics management in the curricula of tertiary institutions across the country to enable young people access training and certification.

In a goodwill message, another fellow of the institute and Manager of the Nigerian Port Authority, Calabar, Dr. Festus Olumati congratulated the newly inaugurated execute for the feat achieved and expressed the hope that the caliber of elected officers would bring their wealth of experience to bear in the transport and logistics industry.

Similarly, the representative of the Cross River State Government and Commissioner for Transport and Marine Services, Mr. Edet Oqua pledged the readiness of the government to collaborate with the institute and develop young professionals to grow the sector.

Earlier, the chairman of the electoral committee, Mr. Otang Otang described the election as free and fair since the institute deployed a platform used for the conduct of the exercise electronically.

He stated, “we have 64 members in the Cross River State branch and for transparent, free and fair process, we deployed the electronic voting system, which is the first of its kind in the institute. With a 44 percent participation, which is good, the result represented the true minds of members.”

Highlight of the ceremony was the presentation of awards to distinguished members of the institute and corporate organisations for employing the services of professionals to drive the sector as well as the launching of its secretariat.