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The groundbreaking ceremony for the Automotive Training Centre in Plateau State Polytechnic (PlaPoly) put together by the Plateau State Polytechnic (PlaPoly) will hold soon, the Director General of the NADDC, Jelani Aliyu has revealed.
PlaPoly is a state-owned polytechnic in Plateau state, north central Nigeria. The institution has two campuses, one at Barkin Ladi where the new NADDC facilities is situated and the other at Bukuru near Jos, the capital of the state. Barki Ladi is less than 30 minutes from the Jos city centre.
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Aliyu told IT Edge News in Abuja that the new facility will be equipped to allow trainees, largely students, acquire practical skills in automotive design, repairs and maintenance of modern vehicles.
The centre will facilitate capacity building in Plateau and contiguous states with more than 10, 000 youths targeted to benefit in the mid-term from the new resource.
The training centre is equipped to allow trainee-students acquire skills in automotive design, repairs and maintenance of modern vehicles
It will also help to create a support value chain to make Plateau state one of the transport and automotive hubs in Nigeria,
Aliyu, a famous Nigerian Chevrolet car designer and inventor of the Chevy Volt, said the PlaPoly centre will further strengthen NADDC’s commitment to harness the talents of young Nigerian in order to sustain the growth in the country’s automobile industry.
The centre will provide a learning ground where young people will be supported in developing their own ideas into reality. In addition, it will boost the drive by NADDC to collaborate with schools of higher learning in Nigeria to improve the value of science and technology to development, Aliyu added.
The Barki Ladi centre is part of the NADDC’s revolutionary blueprint to rework Nigeria’s automotive industry. It is planned to engender not just the local manufacturing of modern vehicles but also ensure the provisioning of testing, repairs and supply of auto parts in order to make complete ownership of new vehicles an affordable, pleasant experience to most Nigerians.
The NADDC is already supporting a South-South Training centre in Benin City, Edo state, to build capacity and empower young Nigerians on the art and science of digital automotive design.
Also as part of its roadmap, the NADDC has conducted series Mechatronics training and empowerment programme in Kano, Sokoto, Owerri and other locations to expose trainees on the repairs and maintenance of vehicles including tricycles and motorcycles.
There are already testing facilities set up in Lagos, Enugu, and Zaria to not only provide technical support services to key players in the automotive subsector, but also ensure global standard compliance in the automotive industry.
The testing centres are helping to vet spare parts or components imported or made in Nigeria to ensure compliance to the minimum global standard
