Founder of Zeetin Engineering Limited, Azibaola Robert, has charged young engineers to take advantage of the company’s expertise and array of machines to improve their practical knowledge in engineering and contribute to the technological advancement of Nigeria.
Azibaola gave the charge on Thursday while taking members of the members of the Abuja Branch of the Nigerian Society of Engineers on a facility tour of Zeetin Engineering complex in the Idu Industrial Area of Abuja.
Azibaola said: “Our engineers have learnt a lot in schools. Now, Zeetin is the right place for our young engineers to come and hone their skills; they can come here and practice what they have been taught in schools.
Azibaola, a Fellow of the Nigerian Society of Engineers, challenged the young engineers to take advantage of the engineering tools at Zeetin to demonstrate their ability to design and carve metals into different shapes and sizes with these machines.
“We are also building capacity; we are open to collaboration in engineering with Nigerian engineers across the globe as we continue to work with our technical partners to achieve all these.
“In Zeetin, we want to make as many spare parts as possible and ultimately, make car engines – both hydrocarbon-based and electric engines – and that will change the narrative that we are not just about automobile assembly. Some of the machines we have here are the same machines that are used abroad to do your jets.”
The entrepreneur advised Nigerians to discourage the practice of sending faulty machines, equipment abroad for repairs instead of patronising Nigerian firms to fix them.
He said: “We should discourage the practice of quickly sending faulty machines, equipment for repairs to Europe or to China or to India.
Despite the challenges we are facing as a country, we at Zeetin Engineering want to change the narrative by making Zeetin the engineering hub for the design, fabrication and production of OEM spares for all sectors of engineering, automobile, aviation, etc, instead of having to go abroad to either buy or repair these things.
This is because we have here in Zeetin the machines that our people go to patronise in other countries abroad.”
Zeetin Engineering is a tech and precision engineering company which focuses on all types of metal works, high-end engineering and spares production.
In his remarks, the leader of the delegation and chairman of the Abuja branch of the Eng. Ben-Osy Osita, thanked Zeetin founder for offering to give hands-on training to young engineers in the practical use of the different machines in the factory, adding that he was very proud of what engineering firm is doing.
“Our young engineers would like to be trained in Zeetin. We would love to send them to come here and do their Industrial Training here. Osita said. We will definitely collaborate on that and bring our engineers here.
“We really appreciate and accept your kind gesture. There’s no other engineering firm in Nigeria that has the kind of equipment we have here in Zeetin. It’s only Zeetin and, I think, one company in South Africa, that have it in Africa. Our young engineers would like to be trained here.”
The NSE chairman also thanked the Zeetin founder for his support and encouragement to engineering bodies as a whole and commended his belief in Nigerian engineers.
He said: “I’m very proud of your belief in Nigerians Building Nigeria. You employed Nigerian engineers and pay them well. Thank you for your belief in Nigerian engineers.
“You believe that something good will come out of this country. Some other persons would, ordinarily, have gone elsewhere, to establish this factory there. But you chose to establish it here in Nigeria because of your strong belief in Nigerian engineers. That’s commendable, and we thank you for that.”