The National Automotive Design and Development Council, (NADDC) is training 1,200 youths on mechatronics and heavy duty in order to bridge the skill gap in the mechanical aspect of vehicles and create jobs in the country.
The Director General of the NADDC, Mr Olawemimo Osanipin disclosed this during a courtesy visit by the Director General of Voice Of Nigeria, VON, Mallam Jibril Baba Ndace in Abuja Nigeria’s Capital.
Mr Osanipin stated that the 300 artisans where trained in the first phase noting that the selection was made from three states in north and three states in the south.
According to him, “We noticed this skill gap, a lot of our Nigerians, don’t understand the mechanical aspect of vehicle, the new trend shows that most of the vehicles that are coming out nowadays are more electrical and more electronic, so they need to understand the concepts and how electrical and electronic work with these vehicles.”
The NADDC Boss disclosed that with the launch of the Consumer Credit Scheme through Nigeria by the federal government, the council has been able to dedicate 20 billion Naira to support acquisition of Nigeria-made vehicle through credit.
“The Credit Corp have started disbursing funds to the first batch, and if the first batch are procured tricycle and motorcycle will now 100% assembled in Nigeria, so what we have done is, you cannot buy, you cannot use that fund to buy any vehicle which will be imported to the country.” He said.
Mr Osanipin also revealed that the council has been able to boost supply for manufacturers by encouraging assemblers to move from semi-knockdown SKD to complete knockdown CKD.
“The difference is SKD, most of the components are brought in from abroad, but when we say complete knockdown, it means some major components are done right here in Nigeria, by so doing, we are going to generate more employment and there are going to be a lot of more multiplier effects in the economy.”
Earlier the Director General of Voice Of Nigeria, VON, Mallam Jibril Baba Ndace sought for collaboration with NADDC in using the media to create awareness on the activities of the council.
“If there is no deliberate communication narrative strategy to push out those stories, the world would not know and the world needs to know the innovation, the new strategy, the incentive you are giving, some of the things you are doing that have not happened here before the world needs to know.
“We, as one of the public media institutions is a vehicle that this institution can leverage on and in our own case, we have what no public media institution in Africa have.”
“We are here to compliment what you are doing by giving our platform to you so, like I said, everything you are doing in terms of research, enhancing industrialization, we will continue to highlight all these milestones as milestones as we work together.” DG VON added.
Olusola Akintonde
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