On 30th June 2022, the crème de la crème in the transportation and logistics industry in Nigeria was at the National Assembly Abuja to contribute to a proposed bill to amend the act establishing the Nigerian Institute of Transport Technology (NITT), Zaria. The institute is the only one in the entire West African sub-region.
The existing act was promulgated by the military in 2004 which key stakeholders including the leadership of the institute, were of a consensus that it has become obsolete and should be amended in line with current global practice
The existing NITT law mandates the Institute to provide research, full and part-time courses of instruction and training for middle cadre managers, technicians and technologists engaged in the operations, management and general development of the transport sector of the Nigerian economy.
When operational, the new law is expected to strengthen the institute and encourage public-private sector investment in the transportation sector of Nigeria. It will ensure that NITT has a standardised curriculum and training in line with the needs of stakeholders, enhance the capacity of the Institute to deliver quality programmes and expansion of the Institute’s programmes and structures to meet the increasing needs of the industry. as well as pave the way for financial autonomy of the Institute, remove obsolete policies that are inimical to its growth and development in particular and the transport industry in general and enable the institute to professionally act as a think-tank and Centre of Transport Intelligence and aiding the Institute in building a formidable transport data bank for better planning and investments in the country.
Stakeholders endorsement of the amendment of the act and other support channels to the institute must have been informed by the consensus that the NITT under the current leadership led by Bayero Salih-Farah has done well and needed to be giving the needed support to do even more
Leading the crusade is Gbemisola Saraki the supervising minister of state for transportation. Having been associated with the institute since her appointment in 2019, she did not hide her feelings while calling for support for the premier transport training institution in the West Africa
” I have visited NITT several times and I can therefore say that I am familiar with the development of the institute since I became minister. All of us in the ministry are pleased with what the current leadership has done and is still doing. Given the need to respond to changing circumstances, including the need to align its staff policies with those of other academic institutions, the ministry supports everything that would be done towards ensuring that NITT becomes a more professional, practical and future driven institution which would serve the much needed manpower in our nation’s transport sector;, Saraki said .
Femi Gbajabiamila, Speaker House of Representatives believes that the NITT if properly empowered through legislation and other means including adequate funding would have the capacity to “ liberate us from over dependence on oil, provide direct and indirect employment opportunities and reduce the carnage on the roads, waterways and others”, stressing that “We as legislators will support all viable efforts that will lead to the improvement of the transportation industry in Nigeria”
The transportation and logistics sector is one of the most critical sectors that drive the economic prosperity of a country. Statistics from the National Bureau of Statistics, shows that current share of transport and logistics’ in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is about 3 percent. This is a clear indication that this all-important multi-billion-naira industry is grossly underperforming and living up to its potentials in Nigeria. In South Africa, data show transportation alone contributes about 6.5% to their GDP, and the USA about 7.7 percent.
For Nigeria, the modes of transportation in dominant use include- rail, road, water and Air Transport. But it can be seen that the present government has upgraded some transport infrastructure. It has constructed new roads, upgraded the existing ones across the various modes of transportation. For instance, the FG has built new airport terminals, a deep seaport with private sector partners, river ports, new standard gauge rail, new gas pipelines and so much more.
Read also: NITT Zaria obtains NBTE approval to offer diploma courses
For these transportation facilities to be optimally utilized, they need highly trained personnel to operate and manage them efficiently. This is where the Nigerian Institute of Transport Technology (NITT), Zaria, Kaduna State comes in to provide the necessary training and to conduct research on key problems in the country so that policies are arrived at based on informed decisions. In the railway sector for instance, the NITT has recently built capacities to provide training in that sector. And the potentials for growth and development in the Nigerian transport sector is quite promising
Established, on the 14th of March, 1986 via Decree No.6 (now CAP 116, LFN, 2004) NITT is to among other things address the problems of manpower in the transport sector in Nigeria. It is the apex training and manpower development Institute for transport and logistics in Nigeria and the West African Sub-region.
Part its major challenges are obsolete establishment law and inadequate funding and low patronage of its academic programmes and services. But the current leadership realized this fact when it came in 2019 and has gone ahead to solve some of them, according to available records.
John Emmanuel, Director of Strategy, Transportation Growth Initiative, and a member of the Chartered Institute of Transport and Logistics said the “the skills gap in the transport sector is very wide and needs to be bridged. NITT was established for that purpose to provide the bridge and the professionalism required to deliver efficient transportation system in Nigeria. They have tried their best over the years based on their mandate. Going forward, Nigeria should be exporting transportation skills because the NITT is positioned to do that.”
Calistus Ibe, a Professor of Transport Management Technology at the Federal University of Technology, Owerri said Nigeria has not developed because we are neglecting transport. “If we develop transport, it will create jobs, facilitate trade, create integration and the total supply chain will improve. This should drive down cost of living in Nigeria” he said.
Bayero Salih-Farah, Director General of NITT, told our correspondent that the Institute is deliberately being repositioned as the premier integrated transportation training facility in the whole of West Africa and a lot of investments have happened and will continue to happen going forward. “It is not only the physical structures that have received facelift, new ones are being constructed; the staff welfare has been enhanced and more staff recruited to beef up our manpower needs. Also, new NITT centres have been opened across the country to make the Institute more accessible to all parts of the country” he said.
He said the new face of NITT was recently unveiled with a clear-cut direction adding so many things have been accomplished since 2019 when he assumed the leadership of the institute.
“We have streamlined the NITT enabling Act, conditions and scheme of service, broadened the scope of the Institute’s programmes and collaborations amongst others things with support from the relevant authorities; Increased participation on the Institute’s short- and long-term programmes and established annexes in Ebonyi, Kano, Gombe, Ekiti and Katsina states to complement the existing ones in Lagos, Abuja and Port-Harcourt. Work is also going on in the Makurdi centre”
“ We have also renovated, furnished and equipped the NITT Main Auditorium, the Institute’s library to an multimedia and e-library. 20-Room Executive Hostel, the Masters in Transport & Logistics Classroom and the NITT Clinic which was expanded in scope and operation to provide medical services to the Institute Community and members of the public.”
The DG said the Institute is also investing in research and development. For instance, it acquired an 84-hectare parcel of land from Kaduna State Government to establish Institute’s Jathropa Farm for bio-fuel production and secured another 40-hectare of land from Sabin Gari Local Government in Zaria towards building the Institute’s Drivers Development and Training Centre.
The institute recently secured the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) accreditation for running of National Diploma programme and Higher National Diploma programmes in the various courses it offers.
One of its novel innovations is the electric Keke (tricycle) which the DG said they are improving on to the level that it can be used commercially. “We are also working on the electric car. We have a team of engineers working on the various elements of the electric car in different parts of the country. So, in the nearest future, we will have a breakthrough” he said.
Other projects at the institute designed to deepen training according to Salih-Farah include; completed construction works in the NITT Phase II Participants’ Hostel 11, almost completed construction works in the DG/CE’s new office building, established and equipped the National Transport Data Bank facility in the Institute with state-of-the-art equipment for real-time collection of transport data across all transport modes and the establishment and equipping of a Multi-lingual Library in the Institute with state of-the-art language translators to provide for training of participants from Francophone countries especially.
A recent visit to the NITT headquarters in Zaria and the liaison offices showed visible projects either completed or at advanced stages of completion. Even staff and regular visitors to the Institute have been asking questions as to where the man gets the money to do the projects. “It is nothing but sheer initiative, good intentions and commitment to what he believes in”, said Danjuma Ismaila, a director in the Institute.
There is ongoing constructing of three Driver Development and Training Centres (DDTC) in Ugheli in Delta State, Ilorin in Kwara State and Zaria in Kaduna State for training of drivers across the country to improve safety and reduce carnage on the nation’s Roads. His leadership has also secured approval to run Mphil/PhD in Transport and Logistics in affiliation with Ahmadu Bello University Zaria and approval by the National Board for Technical Education ( NBTE)
Also under his leadership, two new Departments , Transport Engineering and Audit Departments and Public Private Partnership as well as Collaboration and Networking Unit created as part of the expansion programme
Assessing the achievements of the current NITT leadership, Calistus Ibe said the NITT has developed training capacity and their new Bill when passed into law will enable them expand their scope in line with the current realities given the current situation in the country
“Going forward they will entrench ICT and technology because transportation is now driven by these. The expansion going forward will be in both human and infrastructure. Take Victoria Training Institute in Texas, there is nothing they do on transport without going to the Institute to ask for input. That is the way to go in Nigeria” he said.
