Dangote trains 50 truck drivers

Dangote Articulated Truck Driving School has revealed that it has graduated 50 trainees who had passed through a specially designed and educational curriculum.

According to a statement by the company, the articulated truck driving school at Obajana in Kogi State is Nigeria’s first accredited truck driving academy.

Speaking at the graduation ceremony, the Divisional Director Transport, Ajay Singh, said the new Batch C graduates had only qualified and graduated from classroom instructions and will be exposed to practical sessions through attachments for an additional six months.

Singh also assured that the school will not only bring down the rate of crashes involving articulated vehicles but will 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, Daniel Akuso, said 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 had 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 his agency played a significant role in the training and certification of 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, Professor Idris Bugaje, said that the NBTE was a partnering of the Dangote Cement Plc in the execution of the school’s programme.