Leverage on Available Facilities to Improve Prowess, Azibaola Charges Engineers

Entrepreneur and 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 and infrastructural development of Nigeria.

He gave the charge while taking members of the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE), Abuja branch, on a facility tour of Zeetin Engineering complex in the Idu Industrial Area of Abuja.

“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 (FNSE) said,.

“They will come here and demonstrate their ability to design and carve metals into different shapes and sizes with these machines.”

With its installed machines, of most modern technology, in its factory, Azibaola told the touring engineers Zeetin’s ongoing plans.

“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,” he said.

“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 in 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.”

Azibaola also charged Nigerian engineers to be engineering advocates, urging them “to continue to advocate for changes and re-orientation of the way and manner the engineering profession and its practitioners are perceived by the government in the development of the country,” he said.

“The government encourages local production and the country will develop, no two ways about it. It’s about Ingenuity. It’s about ability to function. Technology is rapidly evolving. Not like it used to be in the 1980s, when you have to go through stringent policy process to be able to import machines.”

Azibaola continued: “If you encourage a lot of people to buy cars from the local industry, several industries will grow. For instance, I started making engine blocks, cars; somebody will be interested in making bolts and nuts, so, another industry will grow; somebody’s interested in making upholstery. It might not be very pleasant at the beginning; but over time, technology improves. We must start from somewhere, and keep improving.”

Zeetin Engineering is a tech and precision engineering company which focuses on all types of metal works, including high-end engineering spares production.

In his remarks, the leader of the delegation and chairman of the Abuja branch of the NSE, Engineer Ben-Osy Osita, accepted and 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 here (in Zeetin). We would love to send them to come here and do training, their IT (Industrial Training),” 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 has 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.

 “I’m very proud of your belief in Nigerians Building Nigeria. You employed Nigerian engineers and paid them well. Thank you for your belief in Nigerian engineers. You believe that something good will come out of this country, for your belief in Nigerian engineers. Some other persons would, ordinarily, have gone elsewhere, like Ghana, to establish this factory there. But you chose to establish it here in Nigeria because of Nigerian engineers. That’s commendable, and we thank you for that,” he said.