By Maryam Saidu & Muhammad Falalu Mukhtar
DUTSIN-MA, KATSINA STATE — The Directorate of Equipment Maintenance (DEM) at Federal University Dutsin-Ma (FUDMA) has organized a one-day training workshop for academics, technicians, and technologists to enhance their professional capacity in ideal laboratory practices, quality management, and resource requirements.
The Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Mohammed Khalid Othman, declared the workshop open, describing the training and retraining of human resources as essential indices for effective service delivery. Represented by the Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture, Prof. Muhammed Ghazali Garba, the Vice-Chancellor noted that the initiative aligns with his administration’s agenda to bridge the gap between employee skills and job demands, while transforming human potential into a valuable institutional asset.
Prof. Othman emphasized that effective laboratory management is a fundamental responsibility of technical personnel and expressed optimism that the session would offer solutions to equipment management and procurement challenges by fostering transparent and guided procurement practices across the university.
Earlier, the Director of DEM, Dr. Funmilola Balogun, welcomed participants and explained that the workshop aimed to instill updated information on Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) to align operations with global standards, prevent data falsification, and reduce errors in testing. Additional goodwill remarks were delivered by Dr. Adikwu Gowon, representative of the Dean, Faculty of Physical Sciences, who praised the university’s management for its foresight.
During the technical sessions, Mr. Silas Ekwuribe, Laboratory Manager at the Multi-User Science Research Laboratory, Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, presented a paper titled “Ideal Laboratory Practices and Resource Requirements for Technical and Academic Staff.” He explained that Good Laboratory Practice embodies a formal quality framework covering the planning, performance, monitoring, recording, reporting, and archiving of laboratory studies.
A second paper, “Resource Requirements for Effective Laboratory Management,” was delivered by Mohammed Bashir Sani from the Equipment Maintenance and Development Centre, ABU, Zaria. He highlighted that modern laboratory management extends beyond basic equipment acquisition to include systematic planning, installation, routine maintenance, and environmental control.
The event concluded with a vote of thanks from Mr. Emmanuel Alabi, who commended the university management for enriching staff skills and urged the continuation of similar capacity-building workshops.
