THE National Institute of Transport (NIT) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Nigerian Institute of Transport and Technology (NITT) aimed at solving technological challenges facing the two countries.

The NIT Rector, Dr Zacharia Mganilwa, said shortly after inking the agreement yesterday that Tanzania lags behind their Nigerian counterparts in modernization of the transport sector and as well as gas and oil exploration.

"The NIT will benefit from exchange programmes especially in transport and gas exploration where our friends (NITT) have advanced curriculums in these areas," he said. Dr Mganilwa said that while Dar es Salaam is projected to have about five million people and yet with difficulties managing its transport systems; the city of Lagos has over 20 million people but with reliable transport infrastructure in place, thanks to efforts made by NITT.

He said that the MoU was timely signed as Dar es Salaam is putting in place the rapid transport project expected to be operational by 2014, adding that various studies have shown potentials for gas and oil in the country and thus calling for internal capacity building.

"Our counterparts (NITT) are also good at training transport management officers, this is another area where we are facing a big challenge as incompetence in the sector is gravely costing the nation, as more money is spent in running vehicles especially in the local government offices," he said.

The NITT Director General, Aminu Yusuf, said that his institute was also happy that the MoU will benefit Nigerians as it will create an avenue for increased collaborations in conducting researches. He said that the journey to the signed relations started long ago and that several visits were carried out between the two institutes and that the agreement will be on win-win basis.

Mr Yusuf bragged over the advancements made in Nigeria and the way local experts there have managed to modernize their cities and towns as well as making transport systems reliable despite the fact that the population there is ten times that of Tanzania.