THE Minister for Transport, Dr Harrison Mwakyembe, has directed the National Institute for Transport (NIT) to hand over statistics that indicate the number of advisory jobs it has landed from government departments in the last five years.

Dr Mwakwembe made the directive in Dar es Salaam during the 28th graduation ceremony at the NIT where 135 graduands were awarded various certificates. Speaking during the ceremony, Dr Mwakyembe said that Tanzanians have a challenge of not valuing their own abilities but instead focus on foreigners in the misguided belief that they are more knowledgeable, effective and superior.

"I want the leadership of this institution to give me the number of consultancies they have received from government institutions in the last five years so that I determine whether we are better and more confident or still dependent on foreign consultancies," he said.

He added that the transport sector is important because it contributes to the economy and therefore NIT has a responsibility to provide the experts to help and help solve challenges in the sector at high levels," he said. Dr Mwakyembe said that the sector is undergoing a revolution with a view to contributing more to the economy and other sustainable community initiatives.

He said the sector had put in place short, medium and long term initiatives to be able to support all other areas of the economy including scaling up Kilimo Kwanza. Dr Mwakyembe also asked NIT to improve its structural outlook to improve learning conditions for the students.

On his part, the chairperson of the NIT governing council, Dr Suleiman Rashid Mohamed, asked the graduands to protect themselves from sexual promiscuity and alcoholism. The Director of NIT, Dr Zacharia Mganilwa, commenting on the aviation sector said that experts like engineers who trained at the time when Air Tanzania was in its glory, were almost retiring and that there was a need for more to be trained.

He said that on the side of indigenous pilots, the situation was alarming since statistics show that there are only 252 where majority are aged between 51 and 60 years whereas the number of foreign pilots is 362 whose ages range between 20 and 40.