AGCOMS International Trading Limited has launched the AGCOMS Academy to address the shortage of skilled personnel needed to operate and maintain modern agricultural machinery in Nigeria.

The company’s Chief Executive Officer, Chijioke Okoli, said the academy was established because insufficient attention had been paid to the human capacity required to make investments in agricultural mechanisation productive.

“Machines are the easy part. The hard part, the part that decides whether a tractor works a thousand hectares or sits rusting behind a shed, is the person operating it and the business running it,” he said.

Okoli said the academy would train operators, technicians, mechanisation service entrepreneurs and agricultural managers, with its flagship Mechanisation Enterprise Management programme scheduled to commence in Abuja in November.

He said the programme was designed to equip participants with practical knowledge needed to operate equipment efficiently, maintain machinery, manage mechanisation services and develop sustainable agricultural enterprises.

AGCOMS, an authorised agricultural equipment dealer, has previously trained more than 380 people across the public and private sectors through its involvement in the sale, servicing and deployment of agricultural machinery.

According to Okoli, the experience demonstrated that successful mechanisation required properly trained operators, technicians, managers and entrepreneurs, rather than equipment alone.

“You do not mechanise a country by shipping in equipment alone. You mechanise it by building the people who make the equipment productive before they arrive,” he said.

He said the academy would use a practical, industry based approach drawing on AGCOMS’s experience in operating, maintaining and servicing agricultural equipment.

Okoli said participants would be exposed to the technical and commercial aspects of mechanisation, enabling them to understand not only how machinery works but also how to deploy it effectively in agricultural enterprises.

The launch comes amid efforts by the Federal Government and other stakeholders to expand agricultural mechanisation to boost productivity, reduce production costs and strengthen food security.

AGCOMS has also participated in training tractor operators under the National Agricultural Development Fund’s mechanisation programme, including an initiative to train up to 4,000 operators ahead of the deployment of 2,000 John Deere tractors.

Okoli said the academy would also seek to encourage young Nigerians to view agriculture as a technology driven and commercially viable sector, rather than relying on traditional perceptions of farming.

“Modern agriculture is a technology business and an entrepreneurial one,” he said.

He said the academy ultimately hoped to produce professionals capable of improving agricultural machinery productivity, supporting farmers and building viable mechanisation enterprises.

Okoli added that AGCOMS planned to expand the academy’s reach beyond Nigeria to other African markets, as demand grows for skilled manpower capable of supporting the continent’s transition towards more mechanised and technology driven agriculture.