The Vice-Chancellor, Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA), Prof. Adebiyi Daramola has said that the forthcoming Auto Fair and Workshop by the university is an avenue to bring brand new automobile products to the doorsteps of productive buyers in the South Western part of the country. The fair which is organised in partnership with a Lagos-based company Filkmou Ltd, is scheduled to hold from August 20 to 26, 2013, at the university ground.
The Vice-Chancellor who briefed the press recently on their preparedness to host the fair said that the event represented a new level of engagement between the university and the automobile industry in the country. He explained that the university was established in 1981 to give prominence to training in technology and applied sciences, and assist in ensuring rapid technological and industrial development in Nigeria.
According to him, the institution has grown to become the best university of technology in Nigeria by 2004 with seven schools including school of postgraduate studies.
Accord to the Vice-Chancellor, the fair is a win-win programme for the university and the players in the auto industry in the sense that the university has a rich pool of intellectuals from which the Nigerian automobile industry could benefit and the university too, without doubt, would gain from the innovations in the industry.
“In addition, the participants from various sectors of the economy including, federal and states parastatals, agencies and corporations, corporate organisations, from the six surrounding states will be directly exposed to corporate patronage and direct purchase of automobile products on display. It is also an avenue to bring brand new automobile products to the doorsteps of prospective buyers in this region,” he said.
Participants expected at the fair include all automobile brands and marketers in the country, automobile manufacturers and representatives, motorcycle dealers, oil and lubricant dealers, car accessories/security dealers, etc.
The university is also targetting all students in various engineering and related departments in the school and other universities in neighbouring states in mechanical, material and metallurgical, industrial designs, computer and electronic engineering departments, with the workshop.
Others are, state governors in the South-South and South-West region as well as commissioners and directors of works and transport in the regions. Chairmen and directors of transport in local government councils, federal and state government parastatals, agencies, corporations and international organisations are also being targeted with the fair.
The Vice-Chancellor, however, noted that the fair is focused on exposing participants to the importance and advantages of buying brand new vehicles, risks of purchasing used vehicles, cost effectiveness of purchasing new vehicles, initiate the modalities of purchasing new vehicles without financial stress, create awareness on the mechanism of brand new vehicles.
