ABUJA – The National Automotive Council (NAC), Subsidy Re-investment and Empowerment Programme(SURE-P) and Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) on Friday, graduated 1002 auto technicians.
The Director-General of NAC, Mr Aminu Jalal, said in an address that 34 of the graduates from Abuja zone were trained in modern auto techniques to enable them to repair modern vehicles.
Jalal said the training was in line with the newly approved National Automotive Industry Development Plan of NAC, adding that 1,004 technicians received similar training in 2014.
The director-general was represented on the occasion by Mr Odetoro Kolapo, Director, Industrial and Infrastructure of NAC.
He listed Peugeot Automobile of Nigeria, Volkswagen of Nigeria, ANAMMCO, Tilad, Innoson, and JAC as some assembly plants that had started work.
Jalal said other plants would set up auto parks for incubating the development of local content industry in Nigeria.
He said that NAC was partnering some companies to introduce Vehicle Purchase Scheme to ensure that people bought cars at low interest rate.
Jalal said that NAC and the National Universities Commission had introduced curriculum for B.Sc in Automobile Engineering in institutions, such as University of Ibadan, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University and Elizade University.
He said that the Federal Government had since 2005 funded industrial projects of 30 companies with N11 billion between 2011 and 2014.
He said that nine of the projects were provided with loans worth N3.5 billion from Bank of Industry.
Mr Nnamdi Udo, an official of SURE-P, who represented General Martin Agwai, the Chairman of SURE-P, said the training would ensure that the graduates did not encounter challenges in repairing model vehicles.
Agwai said with modern equipment, such as battery alternator tester and on-board diagnostic tools given to them by the Federal Government, it would be easy for them to detect faults.
Mrs Bridget Ohiahokhai, Chief Accountant from SMEDAN, represented Mr Bature Masari , the Director General of the agency.
Ohiahokhai said the technicians also received management training to enable them to successfully run their businesses.
Earlier, Mrs Ihekwaba Abigail, Principal of Federal Technical College, Orozo, where the training was conducted, said that NAC had trained 150 students of the college in auto mechanics in the last four years.
She said that the training had enabled the students to use modern technology called automechatronics tools to repair vehicles.
Ihekwaba, represented by Mr Ibrahim Daniel, the Vice-Principal, Administration, of the school, called on the Federal Government to assist the school with 37 KVA plant to be installed in the mechanic workshop.
Mr Aribisola Abduljamin, who spoke on behalf of the graduates, expressed gratitude to President Goodluck Jonathan for the programme.
Abduljamin called on the government to provide them workshops to work.
Miss Miracle Okoye, a female graduand, said that the training had exposed her to the use of modern equipment for repairing vehicles.
Okoye said that before now, she applied guess work to repair cars but would now apply modern technology in her work.
She, however, expressed regrets that she was the only girl in her college studying auto mechanics and called on other girls to show interest in studying auto mechanics.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that NAC began technician training programme for technicians in 2006. (NAN)