The National Centre for Technology Management (NACETEM) is developing a culture where Nigerians with the capacity to build boats can do so locally.
The Director General of NACETEM, Dr Olushola Odusanya disclosed this in an interview on Tuesday in Abuja.
“To build a boat, you need welders, foundry experts, fibreglass reinforcement experts who make fibreglass boats, perhaps aluminium smelters among others,” he said.
According to him, there are hundreds of welding skills with global certifications, and that NACETEM was talking to the International Institute of Welding, for welders to be issued certificates in various categories.
He said once a welder was certified, he would be added to a database and once there was a job opening, such welder would be notified.
He hinted that the centre decided to choose something new in their first year, which is marine and blue economy because it solved income generation, food and new business.
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“We haven’t even mapped our resources in the marine environment, so, there’s a huge gap there and we want to fill this gap with technology.
“That is why we keep talking about fibreglass boat building, foundry practices, welding and connecting it to ICT, to socio-economics, realising that our waters are under- fished, ” he said.
The NACETEM Boss pointed out that Nigeria was endowed with numerous pond resources and shrimps, stressing the importance of building shrimps, and fish trollers.
He said skippers needed to be trained in Nigeria, as well as first and second engineers, marine engineers who were currently being trained overseas, which would save significant amount of foreign exchange.
According to him, building the capacity of such people will enable them to be sent or drafted to areas where Nigeria’s value lies.
Odusanya emphasised that what technology could do for Nigeria was huge, and building a boat had so much to do with technology, adding that the way to quickly start was through ICT.
He also gave updates on their plans and strategies towards the attainment of goals and objectives.
