By Hosea Parah, Abuja
The Dangote Articulated Truck Driving School has graduated 50 trainees who have passed through a specially designed and rigorous educational curriculum.
The articulated truck driving school at Obajana in Kogi State is Nigeria’s first and only accredited truck driving academy.
The school was commissioned last year by the former Corps Marshal of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) Dr. Boboye Olayemi Oyeyemi.
Oyeyemi described it as a significant step towards taming the menace of auto crashes involving articulated trucks in Nigeria.
Speaking at the graduation ceremony, the Divisional Director Transport (DDT), Mr Ajay Singh, said the new Batch C graduates have only qualified and graduated from classroom instructions.
He said that they will now be exposed to practicals through attachments for an additional six months.
Singh gave the assurance that the school would not only reduce the rate of crashes by articulated vehicles but also positively impact other road users.
The director said the ultimate objective was to achieve zero accidents for all subsidiaries in the Dangote Group.
On his part, the Manager of Dangote Articulated Truck Driving School, Dangote Cement Transport (DCT) Obajana, Mr Daniel Akuso, said the intensive training was carried out in collaboration with the FRSC and Fantique Driving Training Centre of South Africa.
According to the Manager of the school, the three months training programme has helped change the orientation of the trainee drivers.
“This is the only articulated truck driving school in Nigeria where the students are paid stipends, trained, tested, certified, licensed, and employed.
”Our products are not only for Dangote Cement but for all subsidiaries of the Dangote Group in Africa,” Akuso said.
Speaking, Deputy Road Commandant, (OC Instructor) of the FRSC attached to Dangote Driving School, Mukhtar Umar, said the agency plays a significant role in training and certifying old drivers and newly recruited trainees.
“We teach them defensive driving, road signs, responsibilities of the driver, driving culture, and then certify them,” Umar said.
The Executive Secretary of the National Board for Technical Education, Prof. Idris Bugaje, said that the board was partnering the Dangote Cement Plc in the execution of the school’s programme.