The general manager of Lagos State Drivers Institute (LASDRI), 

 Afusat Tiamiyu,on Friday, said that the institute trained 56,000 drivers in 2024.

Mrs Tiamiyu disclosed this to journalists at a capacity-building workshop for bus captains.

The event was organised by the Lagos Bus Services Ltd. (LBSL).

According to Mrs Tiamiyu, the drivers were trained under three modes.

“We have three modes of training, some are mandated by law.

“For this mandatory training, anyone driving for a living on Lagos roads is mandated to come to our agency for this training.

“This training is towards increasing the driver’s skills and knowledge, and it is called Mandatory Professional Drivers Training Programme.

“On this, we have trained 48,000 drivers.

“We have the Rehabilitation Course which is for people that commit offences on Lagos roads and are caught by the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority or Vehicles Inspection Service.

“For this, the law says that they should be sent back to LASDRI for training; here, we trained 1,000 drivers,” she said.

The general manager said that the third training – Structured Training Programme –  was in response to requests by companies which did not want their employed professional drivers to be on the wrong side of the law.

According to the LASDRI boss, the Structured Training Programme is advanced training which provides drivers with much education on road signs and markings.

“We trained 7,000 drivers on that last year,” she added.

“LASDRI is a citadel of learning where we train drivers for the next level through our adequate and qualitative annual training,” she said.

She urged drivers to always be on the right side of the law, saying that they should jealously guard their profession because they could achieve much through it.

“The law says before you can drive a vehicle, you must possess a driver’s licence. If you are driving in Lagos State, please abide by all the rules.

“We have developed a new curriculum to ensure we do things better and move along with what is acceptable worldwide.

“At present, one cannot collect LASDRI card without going through our computer-based test.

“We do not want to graduate half-baked drivers,” she said.

Mrs Tiamiyu said that LASDRI’s training and certification had greatly enhanced the exposure of Lagos drivers to best practices.

(NAN)