DICON to Produce APCs this Year

By Senator Iroegbu in Abuja

The  Defence Industries Corporation of Nigeria (DICON) has complied  with the Federal Government’s approval of the establishment of Public Private Partnership (PPP) Units in Federal Ministries, Department and Agencies (MDAs) to drive industrial development and produce Armoured Personnel Carrier (APCs) before the end of this year.

To this end, the Director-General of DICON, Maj-Gen Bamidele Ogunkale, has officially inaugurated PPP Unit at the Corporation Headquarters with the support of Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC) that organised a two-day training programme before its take-off.

In a statement on Friday by the DICON Public Relations Officer, Maj. Emmanuel Adeniyi, Ogunkale requested for approval to execute a Joint Venture Agreement (JVA) between the agency and PROFORCE Limited for joint designing and producing APCs for the armed forces and other agencies.

This, according to him, was a followup to the agreement reached at the 97th DICON Board meeting held at the headquarters, Kaduna, early this year.

He recalled that the Board had directed that all proposed JVAs should be forwarded to the ICRC for its technical input and in line with due process which dovetailed into the recent training programme packaged to broaden the horizon of DICON Management staff on PPP matters.

He further disclosed that the Chairman of DICON Board, Amb. Danjuma Sheni had earlier drawn  the attention of the Corporation to a Circular which directed that PPP Units be established in the MDAs, adding that the recent inauguration was in compliance to that directive.

Ogunkale also explained that he invited the PROFORCE Chief Executive Officers to be part of the training package as the arrangement to partner with them had gone beyond secondary level, stressing that “before the year runs out I am optimistic that some APCs must have been rolled out”.

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