5 November 2009
Abuja — The Director General of the Nigeria Automotive Council (NAC) Engineer Aminu Jalal has said that 80 percent of Nigerian mechanics don't have the necessary skills required to fix modern automobiles.
He spoke on Wednesday in Abuja at a workshop organised by NAC for automotive mechanic and electronics.
"The training of our mechanics in Nigeria has not kept pace with developments in the automotive industry. Our mechanics therefore cannot repair many vehicles plying our roads", he said.
Engineer Aminu said that vehicles manufactured from 1990s possesses different forms of mechatronics- a word derived from mechanics and electronics- to increase their efficiency and safety of occupants.
He said: "Nigeria mechanics whose number is almost two millions are far behind in these new technologies, leaving them at risk of being out of business in the near future. Vehicles are not only towed from several miles at high cost to get the expertise to repair them when they are faulty, sometimes, the mechanics, using a trial and error techniques compound the problem and end up in jail or paying for the damages."
These problems, he said, was one of the reasons NAC is collaborating with the Nigeria Automobile Technicians Association and other stakeholders to hold training program for mechanics to catch up with modern trend in new generation of vehicles repair.
He said: "To remedy these deficiencies, we have designed a curriculum and this workshop is meant to garner input from stakeholder to improve it before its final adoption and launching. The second and more difficult stage is the implementation but we hope to train curriculum assessors and instructor."
The Minister of Labour and Productivity Adetokunbo Kayode said: "The national educational system has in recent past suffered several setbacks, thereby reducing the quality of the system. The acquisition and development of skills relevant to our industries will facilitate paid employment, self employment, creativity and self reliant which is veritable tool to poverty reduction."
He was represented by Alhaji Bala Kundiga.
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