The National Automotive Design and Development Council (NADDC) has organised a technical workshop in Lagos to review and validate draft instructional manuals developed from the approved National Occupational Standards (NOS) for Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) vehicle conversion and Electric Vehicle (EV) maintenance.
City Business News reports that workshop brought together technical experts, industry practitioners, trainers, assessors, academics, members of the Automotive Sector Skills Council and other stakeholders to critically examine the manuals and ensure their alignment with national requirements and international best practices.
The exercise is expected to produce standardised training materials that will promote quality, consistency and competency-based training and certification of automotive technicians across Nigeria.
Speaking at the workshop, NADDC Director General/CEO, Otunba Oluwemimo Joseph Osanipin, represented by the Director, Industrial Infrastructure Department, Mrs. Joke Onireti, stressed the need for the instructional materials to be technically accurate, practical, competency-based, industry-relevant and responsive to Nigeria’s evolving automotive landscape.
He also highlighted the importance of occupational health and safety provisions, particularly in relation to high-pressure CNG systems, high-voltage EV systems, batteries, charging infrastructure, diagnostics and maintenance.
Onireti explained that the validation exercise was designed to ensure that the manuals conform to international best practices.
She said amendments arising from stakeholders’ contributions would be incorporated before the documents are forwarded to the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) and the Industrial Training Fund (ITF) for the necessary approvals.
According to her, upon approval, the manuals would serve as official training documents for the Nigerian automotive industry.
Presenting an overview of the instructional manuals, President of the Automotive Sector Skills Council, Engineer Best Nnodim, described the workshop as critical to the development of standardised training programmes for technicians in CNG conversion and EV maintenance.
He explained that NADDC had mandated the Sector Skills Council to develop training manuals to guide instruction at designated training centres.
Nnodim noted that the National Occupational Standards had earlier been developed as the foundation for the training, while the instructional manuals were subsequently developed from the standards to provide practical guidance for trainers and trainees.
He said the validation process was designed to incorporate wider stakeholder input, adding that the exercise was being conducted in phases.
According to him, the first phase covers the Southern region, comprising stakeholders from the South-East, South-South and South-West, while a subsequent session would be held in Kano for stakeholders from the Northern regions.
He added that observations from the various zones would be harmonised by a smaller committee to produce a nationally acceptable document in line with established government procedures for developing national training materials.
The immediate past President of the Sector Skills Council, Engineer Udeh Francis, said the workshop was focused on critiquing and validating instructional materials for the training of technicians in CNG vehicle conversion and EV maintenance.
He explained that the exercise followed the development of the National Occupational Standards for the two areas, which provide the foundation for training personnel in emerging segments of the automotive industry.
Francis stressed that developing and validating the instructional materials was essential to standardising training and maintaining quality across the sector.
He said the participation of experts from academia, industry and technical practice would help ensure that the materials reflect international best practices and support consistent, high-quality training outcomes in CNG and electric vehicle technologies.
The workshop represents a further step in strengthening Nigeria’s automotive skills development framework and equipping technicians and other industry practitioners with standardised, practical and industry-relevant training to support the country’s transition to emerging automotive technologies.
