The Defence Industries Corporation of Nigeria (DICON) has pledged to redouble its efforts in the production of military equipment and arms to support the fight against terrorism and other forms of insecurity in the country.
The Director-General (DG) of DICON, Maj.-Gen. Victor Ezugwu, made the pledge at the start of a three-day retreat organized for the management staff of DICON which began on Tuesday in Kaduna.
The DG stressed that DICON would do more in the manufacturing of ordnance materials for the Nigerian Armed Forces and other security agencies.
According to him, it will help in the fight against terrorism and other forms of criminal activities, thus aligning with President Buhari’s assurances in his new year speech.
The President had in his new year speech guaranteed Nigerians of their security and bringing an end to banditry and other forms of insecurity.
The DG said that upon his assumption of duty as the head of DICON, he coined his vision which is: “to be the hallmark for research and the manufacturing of military equipment leveraging on local content that meets the global standards.
“We have made efforts to reactivate the moribund Explosives Factory in Jebba for more profitability in this era of dwindling scarce resources.”
He stressed that on the note of strengthening capacity and innovation, they had been collaborating with the Nigerian Army Command Engineering Depot from which the Ezugwu MRAP was birthed and other partnerships with defence-related industries.
He noted that to encourage productivity, the management of DICON institutionalized training and re-training of staff through collaborations with strategic partners such as the Industrial Training Fund.
“We also partnered the National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure, several tertiary institutions, relevant research institutes and other private and public organizations, among many others.
“I have also decided to institutionalize this management retreat to hold annually and serve as a veritable platform for cross-fertilisation of ideas among DICON’s top management staff,” the DG said.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the immediate past DG of DICON, Maj.-Gen. Dickson Ehiorobo, presented a paper titled ‘the necessity of innovation and creativity for the transformation of DICON to meet the equipment needs of the military and other security agencies”.
NAN also reports that other intellectuals from various spheres of the academia and the military presented papers and discussed ways toward moving DICON forward and increasing its productivity. (NAN)
