The National Agricultural Development Fund (NADF) has graduated its first cohort of about 250 participants under the National Agricultural Mechanisation Service Providers Training Programme.
The programme is part of the Federal Government’s efforts to strengthen technical capacity and improve the sustainability of agricultural machinery deployment across Nigeria.
NADF said the broader programme targets the training of 4,000 tractor drivers and mechanics, with 250 participants from the country’s six geopolitical zones trained during the first phase.
Speaking in a statement on Thursday, NADF Executive Secretary and Chief Executive Officer, Mohammed Ibrahim, described the graduation as an important milestone in the government’s drive to modernise agriculture through mechanisation, innovation and human capital development.
He explained that the programme was designed not only to train machinery operators and service providers but also to develop the skills, maintenance systems and professional standards needed to sustain agricultural productivity and improve Nigeria’s food and nutrition security.
The trainees received intensive instruction in agricultural mechanisation, machinery and equipment management, occupational safety, enterprise development, sustainable maintenance, environmental conservation and sustainability.
Ibrahim said the pilot cohort comprised about 232 trainees, whose certification by the Industrial Training Fund would qualify them for inclusion in a national database of competent agricultural mechanisation service providers being developed by NADF.
He added that the database would support long-term public and private investment in agricultural machinery and could enable certified service providers to manage agricultural assets worth millions of naira.
The NADF boss stressed that successful mechanisation should not be measured by the number of tractors acquired, but by the ability to keep the machines operational, productive and economically viable.
He noted that some previous investments in agricultural mechanisation had failed to achieve their full potential because of inadequate technical capacity, poor maintenance systems and weak accountability.
Meanwhile, the National President of the Tractor Owners and Hiring Facilities Association of Nigeria, Abdullahi Mohammed, commended NADF for organising the training and bringing participants from different parts of the country together.
He called for continued collaboration among NADF, machinery manufacturers, vendors and service providers, as well as greater government support to make agricultural machinery more affordable.
NADF said the training programme forms part of its broader efforts to address challenges across Nigeria’s agricultural value chains and strengthen food security.
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