Driving School: NBTE applauds Dangote Cement for initiative, women empowerment 

*The National Board for Technical Education commends Dangote Cement Plc as the conglomerate says the Dangote Articulated Truck Driving School has enrolled 50 fresh trainee drivers, of which 10 female trainees are currently participating in the 2023 Batch A session

Isola Moses | ConsumerConnect

For their strict compliance to rules and regulations governing road usage, the Dangote Cement Plc, Transport Division, has quadrupled the enrollment of female truck drivers into the Dangote Articulated Truck Driving School.

The National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) has also given the conglomerate a thumbs-up over the establishment of the school.

The company, Thursday, June 8, 2023, disclosed the Dangote Articulated Truck Driving School, Obajana, Kogi State, is considered unique, being the first of its kind in the history of Nigeria’s transport sector.

It is noted the foremost Cement company inculcates the culture of safe driving in its drivers and other third-party drivers.

Mr. Ajay Singh, Divisional Director Transport said the Academy had enrolled 50 fresh trainee drivers, of which 10 are female trainees who are partaking in the 2023 Batch A session.

Singh stated that the intensive training was being conducted in collaboration with the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) and Fantique Driving Training Centre of South Africa.

According to him, experience has shown that female drivers are more careful, and have carted away most of the awards while emerging best in the past assessment conducted by the company.

Speaking on the development, Mr. Daniel Marcus Akuso, School Manager, also said that some of the courses taught in the school include Civic Education, English, Mathematics, Defensive Driving, Truck Handling, Maintenance Technology, DCT Administration Procedures, Root Cause Analysis, Health and Science, Road Signs and Codes.

In his remark on the arrangement, Engr. Mukhtar Umar, Deputy Road Commandant, (OC Instructor) of the FRSC attached to Dangote Driving School, said his agency played a significant role in the training and certifying old drivers and newly recruited trainees.

Umar also stated: “We teach them defensive driving, road signs, responsibilities of the driver, driving culture, and then certify them.”

Relating her experience on the programme, Oshile Victoria, a 30-year-old female trainee and graduate of Economics, said she considered herself very lucky to have been selected to participate in the programme.

Another 35-year-old trainee from Katsina State said it was a dream come true.

In the same vein, Fatima Haruna Adamu, 27, who had wanted to join the Army, said the driving school had helped fulfill her dream.

She asserted: “I believe what a man can do, a woman can do too.”

NBTE commends Dangote Cement on driving school initiative

Prof. Idris Bugaje, Executive Secretary of the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE), commended Dangote Cement for the initiative to set up the Articulated Trucks Driving School.

Bugaje stated the school would help in ensuring safe driving on the Nigerian roads.

The Executive Secretary also disclosed that the NBTE was partnering the Dangote Cement Plc in the execution of the school’s programme in an attempt to foster collaboration for the good for the society.

It is recalled that Dangote Cement has been partnering the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) in some areas relating to practical training and lectures on safe driving in all of its cement plants with special programmes involving road shows to sensitise drivers, Okada riders and other road users in their immediate communities on how to use the road safely to avoid accident.