The Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE), Ikeja Branch, has officially launched a comprehensive career acceleration initiative to equip young engineers with practical, digital, and entrepreneurial skills.
The initiative, known as the NSE Ikeja Branch Career Acceleration Programme (NIBCAP), was unveiled during the branch’s 2026 Annual Business Luncheon held in Lagos. The event gathered engineers, policymakers, and private sector stakeholders under the theme, ‘Reclaiming the Built Environment Value Chain: Strengthening Standards, Regulation and Investment in Nigeria’s Construction Ecosystem’, to address critical gaps within the nation’s engineering and industrial architecture.
Delivering a keynote address, Professor Oluwatoyin Ashiru, the Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of Council at Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ogun State, described NIBCAP as a timely, strategic intervention for young engineering professionals. Ashiru noted that the initiative will bridge the persistent gap between theoretical tertiary training and actual industry expectations in an increasingly competitive global economy.
According to him, the framework combines technical competence, digital literacy, entrepreneurship, and career readiness into an integrated learning ecosystem.
“One of the greatest challenges facing young engineers today is not a lack of intelligence. Nigerian youths are exceptionally brilliant,” Ashiru emphasized. “The real problem is that many graduates leave school with certificates but without sufficient practical competence, industry exposure, digital skills and entrepreneurial capacity.”
Ashiru stressed that traditional mentorship alone is no longer sufficient in a landscape where engineering deeply intersects with artificial intelligence (AI), renewable energy, sustainability, and automated project management.
“Any engineer who refuses to evolve may soon discover that technology has respectfully retired him before pension age,” he warned. “The future engineer must not only be employable. The future engineer must also be capable of employing others.”
Also speaking at the luncheon, the immediate past President of the NSE, Mrs. Margaret Oguntala, commended the Ikeja Branch for setting the pace and urged other state branches and specialized divisions to replicate the human capital model nationwide. She further advocated for a more inclusive professional ecosystem that systematically integrates, trains, and standardizes all cadres of workers within the built environment value chain.
Detailing the operational drive of the project, the Chairman of the NSE Ikeja Branch, Mrs. Niimot Muili, explained that the luncheon directly addressed the dominance of informal, unregulated operators across critical infrastructure sectors, including construction, wastewater management, power, and mining.
Muili revealed that NIBCAP will initially accommodate an introductory cohort of 150 participants selected from the branch’s existing mentoring pool. Structured to run through consecutive awareness, intensive learning, and direct industry-exposure phases, the programme is deliberately designed to upscale both engineering graduates and skilled artisan workers—including welders, iron benders, and concrete mixers—to formalize the engineering value chain.
“At the end of the process, employers can be confident that these young engineers are ready to deliver,” Muili concluded, noting that the initiative stands as a fully scalable blueprint ready for adoption across the country.
