Automobile NGO rewards excellence to reduce accidents on Nigerian roads

…Set to hold industry award

As part of its efforts to protect lives and property, Automobiles And Road Safety Initiative, a non-governmental organisation, is working to promote safety and reduce the number of accidents that occur on Nigerian roads.

Speaking in Lagos on Monday in an event to announce the upcoming Nigeria Annual Automotive Industry Awards, Samuel Oloyede Oriowo, president of the initiative, said the organisation is actualising its core objective through campaigns, seminars, and workshops on safety on the roads for stakeholders in the Nigerian automotive sector.

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“We have been able to positively impact the practitioners in the automotive repair and maintenance sector to carry out their duties as well as trades in the most ethical ways to eliminate accidents that occurred on the roads, but which could be traceable to shoddy repair sessions in the workshops,” Oriowo said.

He said the Automobiles and Road Safety Initiative discovered that a reasonable percentage of the current automobile repair technicians in the country are aging and are not adequately equipped to embrace the requisite latest automotive technology that will position them to function as repairers of modern-day automobiles that come with sophisticated brain boxes.

He said the NGO has also established the West Africa Automotive Institute which was launched in December 2022 during the first Nigeria Annual Automotive Industry Award in Lagos.

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According to him, the institute was established to address the obvious knowledge gaps and to train younger people from the communities and colleges on the best and most authoritative techniques in automobile maintenance.

He said the management has commenced a conversation with the Federal Government to concede one of its agencies’ properties situated in Osun State to the institute to use as a campus.

“The West Africa Automotive Institute is a novel idea that will promote knowledge and groom young people who will drive safe driving and durable motor car initiative with emerging technology from vehicle manufacturing plants to the mechanic workshops,” he said.

Oriowo said the NGO is also concluding plans to hold the second edition of the Nigeria Automotive Industry Award established to recognise creativity and reward excellence among key players in the motoring industry in Nigeria.

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He said the award will induce standard work ethics and discourage the production of fake automotive lubricants, parts, and allied products that adversely affect the industry and the nation’s economy.

He added that the 2nd edition of the Award will be held in Lagos on Monday 27th November 2023 with the theme: ‘Celebrating the Best & Brightest of the Nigeria Automotive Industry.’

Oriowo added that the award categories have been enlarged and several sectors of the industry have been considered appropriate for honour.