By FAVOUR NNABUGWU

The Minister of State for Works, Prince Adedayo Adeyeye has tasked the Regional Centre for Training in Aerospace Surveys (RECTAS) to improve its standard in order to compete favourably among institutions like it in the world. Adeyeye threw the challenge to the Executive Director of RECTAS, Mr Adewale Akingbade when the new ED paid a courtesy call on the Ministry of Works in Abuja on Tuesday.

Dayo Adeyeye

The Minister said it has become imperative for the Ministry to continue to Support RECTAS in every possible in order to enable the training institute achieve its objective and expand its scope. He advised the ED to use his four-year tenure to improve the centre in order to be at an advantage with others similar training institute and also rank high in the world.

‘The relevance of this centre at this special time can’t be re emphasized so it is our duty therefore to do whatever is in our power to strengthen the activities, to encourage the works of the researchers in the centre, to make sure there is enough and adequate resources are provided to be able to carry out the vision”. He pledged the Ministry’s support to the centre, “What is needed is continuous support for it to have all attributes to be able to carry out your mission efficiently and successfully. So you are welcome here, count on our support, our doors are opened all the time, we will continue to give you the necessary support”.

He added, “I want to assure you that we will continue to support the centre in every way possible so that it becomes the centre of excellence not only in the station that it is located but also in the African sub region and I look forward to the time where the centre can be compared to similar ones all over the world and I have no doubt that we have the man power to ensure that we are ranked amongst the best in the world”.

“I wish you in the next four years a very successful tenure I will encourage you not only to build on what your predecessors left behind but to make fundamental changes, changes that will fundamentally improve the quality of your service, I want you to take very bold and courageous steps to really expand, to build the work of the centre and like I said always count on our support”.

Mr Adewale Akingbade, Executive Director of RECTAS, said the support was instrumental to infrastructural development of the centre.

Recapping the aim of the centre, Akingbade said that RECTAS was established to conduct courses in change formatics, a the sign of technology that deals with collection of special datas, analysis and the dissemination of data.

He explained, ‘We are not only doing that we conduct academic training programs, technologist, professional masters and PhDs, we have courses for good governance, we have courses in the use of geo formatics for the use of constructions especially for road designs, highways and construction, the department of engineering of their design”.

“We have also started three programs in application geo formatics of special data to combat security challenges and this centre we are doing such programs to trans national that is co operating with countries like Niger, Chad, Cameroon; the application of geo formatics for security purposes”.

RECTAS, he elucidated further, is an international centre with eight member countries, Benin,  Burkinafas, Cameroon, Ghana, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Nigeria as the host country.

Ends