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DG, NITT
The Acting Director General and Chief Executive of the Nigerian Institute of Transport Technology (NITT), Zaria, Dr. Bayero Salih Farah, has expressed the Institute’s readiness to collaborate with the Bayero University, Kano (BUK). The Ag. DG/CE stated this when a team of transport experts from the Faculty of Engineering BUK led by Engr. (Prof.) Hashim Alhassan visited the Institute.
The Ag. DC/CE decried the scant interest in transport and logistics education as well as the dearth of professionals in the industry. He said, “we welcome BUK into the category of institutions providing transportation education;little wonder the Federal Government is keen on setting up a transportation universityto close the gap and make more professionals available”. Reaffirming NITT’s willingness to cooperate with BUK, Dr Farah said, “we will be glad to work with you to produce more professionals and develop competencies in research in the transport and logistics industry in Nigeria”.
The Ag. DG/CE stressed that in addition to the affiliation with Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, to run Postgraduate Diploma and Master’s programmes, NITT was still “working on new programmes which we may wish to collaborate further particularly in the areas of Engineering; we want to work on programmes that cover Railway Engineering, Highway Engineering, Marine Engineering, Aeronautics, Automobile, etc.” He, therefore, thanked the BUK delegation for extending the hands of friendship and cooperation.
Speaking earlier, the leader of the BUK delegation, Engr. Prof. Hashim Alhassan, said that the team’s familiarization tour was at the instance of the Vice Chancellor who after an interaction with Transportation Initiative Group (a non-governmental organisation) directed them to “link up and network with NITT to explore what they are doing to see how we can help grow NITT and BUK so that transportation will be better for all of us”. The university Don further noted that “transportation is the economy” adding that synergy among stakeholders is imperative in order to “deliver the services required to sustain the economy.
Prof. Alhassan explained that the choice of NITT was informed by the institute’s critical efforts towards professionalizing the transport industry. He intoned, “you are rich in terms of manpower and equipment”. He therefore, suggested that NITT should establish a National Transport Research Centre to encourage high calibre attention thus making it not only competitive, but also distinctively unique.
Moving the vote of thanks, the Registrar of the Institute, Mallam Sule Bello, opined that dialogue and synergy were indispensable factors in sustainable growth and progress of any organisation. Mallam Sule Bello further observed that NITT’s Study Centres in Abuja, Lagos, Port Harcourt, Gombe, Ebonyi and Kano would make the Institute’s professional training programmes readily available and accessible to clients in the six Geo-political zones of Nigeria. The Registrar praised the Vice Chancellor’s vision and insight as well as reiterated NITT’s willingness and readiness to collaborate with BUK.
