By; SANI ALIYU, Zaria
The Director General (DG) of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dr. Bashir Yusuf Jamoh, has said that the agency’s staff that participate in training programmes at the Nigerian Institute of Transport Technology (NITT), Zaria, are more productive.
He made this known in an interview with newsmen shortly after the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on training and research between NIMASA and NITT in Zaria.
Dr. Jamoh said that NIMASA signed the MoU because of the value NITT training programmes have been adding to the transport and logistics industry.
According to him, this is what informed NIMASA to partner with NITT, aimed at tapping from the enormous resources of the institute in terms of training, research and development for our staff in the maritime industry.
“I have no doubt and I can beat my chest and say that we observe changes in terms of productivity as a direct result of the training at NITT”, Dr. Jamoh said.
The NIMASA helmsman who said he was surprised at the accelerated infrastructural development in the institute, eulogised the NITT DG/CE for judiciously utilising funds appropriated to the for development purposes.
“I want to believe that the institute is doing all these from the little resources allocated to it for infrastructure development “.
Dr. Jamoh reiterated the fact that the MoU would formalise and strengthen an already existing mutually beneficial relationship between NIMASA and NITT.
He assured NITT of his agency’s continuous patronage and support, charging the institute not to relent on its efforts, but rather continue to improve on the quality and standard of training it provides.
In his remarks, the Director General/Chief Executive of NITT, Dr. Bayero Salih Farah, stressed that NIMASA has been an integral part of the NITT success story.
He noted that “NIMASA is one of the agencies in the ministry that has substantially contributed to the growth and development of the Institute “.
Dr. Farah assured that NITT would continue to improve upon its infrastructural development, programmes and human capacity building.
He noted that the Institute’s efforts in making its programmes moe robust, has been rewarded as it recently got approval from the NBTE to run accredited diploma programmes in various fields of transport and logistics.
The DG noted that efforts are in top gear to get additional approval from NBTE to run more programmes.
He said the institute is seeking international accreditation in accordance with global best practices.
“We have also tried to measure up to international standards in our programmes delivery.
“The institute is working towards getting accreditation from international bodies so that the programmes we offer in the can compete favourably with any programmes that can be obtained any where in the world,” he disclosed.
Speaking on the manpower development, Dr. Farah informed that the institute regularly trains its staff for quality service delivery.
“We have also embarked on training our staff; we have about 16 staff now undergoing training in a university in Malaysia. About 10 of them are undergoing PhD programmes, and the rest are studying for Masters in transport in specific areas of needs to the Institute,” he pointed out.
