NITT announce plans to Scale up Transport Databank
BY Victoria Ogunrinde
The Director General/Chief Executive, Nigerian Institute of Transport Technology (NITT), Dr. Bayero Farah has announced plans to scale up the transport databank in the Institute which is aimed at improving its viability and sustainability.
Farah made this known during a 3-day National Transport Databank Project Pre-implementation Technical Workshop recently organised by the Institute in Abuja.
According to him, “the need to facilitate the development of a National Transport Databank is crucial to the development of Nigeria’s transport sector and economy.
“Being the apex transport research and management development institute in Nigeria, it behooves NITT to take the leading role in advancing discussions amongst transport stakeholders,” Farah said.
The NITT boss pointed out that the Institute had already been able to achieve a partial automated transport data ecosystem located in the Transport Technology Center of the Institute in Zaria, adding, however, that the Institute plans to scale-up the databank to bridge the existing data silos in the system.
“It is therefore my hope and belief that at the end of this workshop, we shall be able to come up with an advanced infrastructure architecture for the databank capable of upgrading and advancing the national outlook of transport data ecosystem in the Institute”, he stated.
Representing the Minister of Transportation, RT, Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, the Director transport planning and Coordination of the Federal Ministry of Transportation, Mrs. M.O. Ilori, maintained that accurate, structured data collection and transport data management were vital to the overall development of the transport sector and the nation at large.
However, she decried the lack of credible data in the transport sector, noting that it has hampered the realization of the full potential of use of data in the sector.
Mrs. Ilori pointed out that, “in line with Transport Medium-term Development Plan 2021-2025, the Ministry has been mandated to coordinate a robust transport databank that will encompass all modes of transportation.
“The ministry is encouraging and supporting its agencies to have a subsector database which will be harmonized in collaboration with NITT” she added.