As part of its effort to empower women in the state, the Lagos State Government on Sunday revealed it had employed additional 80 women as mass transit drivers with the Lagos Bus Asset Management Company, LAGBUS. This is coming at a time it commenced training of 998 drivers of LAGBUS on accident prevention skills.
The Managing Director of LAGBUS, Babatunde Disu, who announced this, at the training for the fourth batch of LAGBUS captains at the Public Service Staff Development Centre, PSSDC Magodo, said the firm was poised to create a modern, secure and sustainable bus transportation service designed for the special needs of Lagos, while also providing equal opportunities for the female gender.
Also speaking, the General Manager for fleet operation, LAGBUS, Seyi Osiyemi, who explained the motive for the employment of the female drivers, said “We employed the female drivers to encourage the women who have interest in driving the LAGBUS buses.
“These 80 female have started their training on driving from the basics. These ladies do not have driving experience. We will first train them on how to drive car. After that, they will graduate to smaller buses; after which they will learn how to drive the big bus.
“We expect this process to take between 3- 6 months. The ultimate plan is to have them driving the LAGBUS, the red bus. It takes a lot of time for people to embrace it”, he added.
Disclosing the number of applicants who applied for the job, he said; “We had about 200 women who filled application forms, so we short-listed and started with these first 80. We are also recruiting more males because we are refurbishing 180 buses which will be added to the fleet,” he said.
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