By Grace Obike, Abuja
The Afeme Mechatronics School is working on acquiring the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) full accreditation.
The school was established 2015 as part of a bilateral agreement between the Ministry of Defence and Germany and awarded the National Vocational Certificate in mechatronic automobile.
Students are drawn from the Army, Navy and Air Force and trained in the maintenance of modern and sophisticated automobiles for the Nigerian Armed forces.
Chief of Defence Staff, General Lucky Irabor said at the 2021 graduation of batch five students of the school that the Armed Forces has continued to witness improvement through enhanced counter-Improvised Explosive Device (IED) capabilities, more effective medical support to filter units and in the theatre of operations.
Gen. Irabor, who was represented by Air Vice Marshal Yakubu Aminu, said the institution was fulfilling its mandate.
“The Afeme Mechatronics school was set up with the objective of producing technicians, capable of maintaining modern and sophisticated automobiles in the infantry of the armed forces of Nigeria, and those that will be acquired in the future. I am delighted to say that the objectives for the establishment of the school have largely been achieved as the quality of graduates of the school has been well acknowledged from the feedback from the field.
“This school has been awarded the National vocational certificate in mechatronic in automobile mechatronics. However, in line with the current drive to enhance the existing standards, the school is currently at the final stages of getting accreditation from the NBTE. Once the final accreditation is achieved, the school will commence awarding the national innovative diploma certificate. Thus students in the school would be expected to undergo two years of intensive training to meet the requirements of both the NBTE and the German Chamber of Commerce and Industry regulations. At this juncture, let me congratulate the 21 students graduating today,” he said.
The military chief added that the German government had sponsored numerous projects in the country apart from the Mechatronics School. They include, Army School of military engineering in Makurdi, 44 reference hospital and NAF base in Kaduna, as well as in Jaji.
Representative of the Ambassador of Germany to Nigeria, Deputy Defence Attachee Lt.-Col. Stefan Wolter said his country assists Nigerian Military with Naval equipment, instruction infrastructure, etc.
He said: “Currently, our support ranges from the contribution of mobile and steady, medical treatment and rehabilitation facilities over to the provision of long and short range, night vision equipment and infrared equipment, as well as ground surveillance radars, but we also continue to assist with continuity duty and naval engineering equipment. instructors infrastructures and training facilities, and by offering several training courses in different domains that have been conducted in Germany.”
