The General Manager of the Lagos State Drivers’ Institute, (LASDRI) Mrs. Afusat Tiamiyu has said that the Institute has trained and re-certified over 500,000 professional drivers in the last 14 years of its existence.
She revealed this while speaking on “Know Your Agencies”, a Traffic Radio Programme organised in partnership with Parastatals Monitoring Office (PMO).
Tiamiyu, while speaking on Drivers’ orientation and training, informed that the agency was established in 2007 through the Lagos State House of Assembly enabling law and commenced operation in 2009 with the sole aim of ensuring improved road safety culture in Lagos State.
She reiterated that the mandate of the Institute, which is to ensure the safety of lives and property on the road through training, retraining and recertification of professional drivers while ensuring that all registered Driving Schools in Lagos State adhere to ethics of the profession and also have a database for all professional drivers in the State.
“We have three windows of training for professional drivers. First is the Mandatory Training, which is compulsory for all professional drivers and has been highly subsidised by the Lagos State Government; the Rehabilitation Training are for those drivers caught on the wrong side of the law, while the Structured Training is tailored for specialised drivers”, she added.
Reeling out some of the achievements of the Institute, the General Manager stressed that the LASDRI started with five centres located across the five administrative divisions of Lagos State, but presently operates an additional six annexes across the state with seasoned professionals who are vast in the business of road safety.
In her words: “Through the Babajide Sanwo-Olu Administration, equipment such as simulators, seat-belt convincer and audio-visual aids have been put in good order. Mr. Governor has also graciously approved a driving range for us which will be used in training professional drivers in conjunction with registered driving schools. These registered driving schools will also have the opportunity of training their first-line drivers on the driving range too. All these are efforts geared towards the safety of Lagosians”.
While revealing the Institute’s plan for 2023, Tiamiyu said that a new curriculum has been designed for the professional drivers in updating their skills and also, plans are in top gear towards purchasing more equipment for the annexes to aid training. More annexes will be opened in order to ensure all professional drivers have easy access to the training institute.
She added that with the gracious approval of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, professional drivers who have set good examples in the discharge of their duties and exhibited exceptional driving ethics will be rewarded during the Drivers’ Appreciation Day that will be held later in the year.
She appealed to all professional drivers to be on the safe side of the law, pay attention to traffic rules and regulations put in place by the Lagos State Government, obey all traffic personnel on the road and drive to stay alive.
