Highlight of DG’s visit to R & D Center 26 march 2024

DG DICON ON ROUTINE VISIT TO DICON DRONE CENTRE AND R&D CENTER

Today 26 March 2024 at about 0900hrs, the Director General DICON (DG DICON), Major General AE Edet, conducted  a routine working visit to the DICON Ordnance Factory Kakuri, to assess the state of affairs at the DICON Drones Centre, as well as the DICON Research and Development Centre. While at the Ordnance Factory, the DG visited the Drone Centre and interacted with the Head and Staff of the Centre. Mr Sabonruwa, Head of the DICON Drone Centre, conducted the DG and team around the project facilities. The DICON Drones Centre was established on 26 January 2021 by DICON partners from the South African World Marine Technologies Systems, with the purpose of building local capacity in drones production, as well as training drone pilots to certification levels.

While at the Centre, the DG commended the staff and emphasized the importance of the Centre to the Corporation as the Ordnance Factory. He maintained that DICON was not meant to only produce arms and ammunitions, but also other modern defence materiel, like Unmanned Area Vehicle systems. He expressed regrets that the Centre which should have been producing drones for Nigeria was now inactive. He revealed plans to integrate the ongoing drones project at DICON with current expertise and facilities at the Centre.

In the same vein, the DG and his team also visited the DICON Research and Development Centre which was established as far back as 1977. While at the Auditorium of the DICON R&D Centre, he interacted with the Directors and all staff of both the R&D Centre and the DICON Training School. During his interaction with Staff, the DG spoke on several issues including the need to provide specialized training for staff of both the R&D Centre as well as the DICON Training School. The DG also addressed the need for R&D funding to sustain pending research and development efforts in DICON, while charging the R&D Centre to explore local content as a requirement in all DICON projects. Issues relating to welfare, incentives, allowances of DICON Staff, and Intellectual Property Transfer Technology Office (IPTTO) were also discussed.

The DG expressed a desire to see the progress and continued production at the DICON factories in order to boost the growth of Nigeria’s Military Industrial Complex. The visit ended with a group photograph with all staff of the Centre and Training School, as well as student of IT and SIWES programmes.