The Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority has signed a three year partnership with China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation to establish the LAMATA Railway Training Centre in Lagos, part of an effort to build local human capacity for the state’s expanding rail network.
At the signing ceremony in Lagos, themed Building Talent, Driving the Future, LAMATA Managing Director Abimbola Akinajo said the agreement responds to a need for training that is grounded, focused and fully localised for Lagos. This training agreement means a lot to LAMATA, she said, we have been working with CCECC but we were looking for something that would be more grounded, focused and completely localised for us in Lagos, noting the state currently has five rail lines and one monorail identified, with an updated strategic transport master plan adding five more, bringing the long term target to eleven rail lines. For us, that means that those 11 rail lines have to be sustainable, she said, we need to be able to provide experts to design, to implement, and to operate those rail lines and that means we need to begin to put the seat down for training, adding that the centre will formalise rail transportation skills through certification, empowering young people to work as professionals in Nigeria and abroad while tackling skills deficiency and unemployment.
