The Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Sola Enikanolaiye, has called for stronger public awareness of the activities of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Nigerian Technical Aid Corps (NTAC), saying Nigerians need to know more about the country’s foreign policy achievements.
Speaking during a courtesy visit by NTAC Director-General, Hon. Yusuf Buba Yakub, and the agency’s management team in Abuja, Enikanolaiye said the Ministry would intensify its public communication as part of efforts to reposition Nigeria’s foreign policy under the 4-D agenda of Demography, Democracy, Development and Diaspora.
“We need to create more announcements for Nigerians to know what we are doing in the Ministry and NTAC,” the minister said.
He added, “Nigerians have not been fully aware of the work of TAC and MFA. We must up our game in the media. I know it costs money but we must do it.”
Enikanolaiye said the Ministry was implementing wide-ranging reforms to improve service delivery.
“Presently, the whole Ministry is going through comprehensive reforms to reposition it for better and more efficient service delivery in line with its constitutional mandate,” he said.
Describing NTAC as a key partner in Nigeria’s foreign policy, the minister said, “TAC and MFA is like son and father. We must see ourselves as partners and family.”
He also commended the agency for its performance despite funding constraints.
“I commend the Director-General for achieving much with little resources,” he said.
Earlier, NTAC Director-General Yusuf Buba Yakub said the agency, established in 1987, remains one of Nigeria’s key instruments for promoting South-South cooperation through the deployment of skilled professionals to developing countries.
“The creation of NTAC reflects a deliberate shift from direct financial aid towards the deployment of human capital as a more sustainable form of development cooperation,” Yakub said.
He explained that Nigerian professionals are deployed to partner countries for two-year volunteer assignments in sectors including education, healthcare, agriculture, engineering, ICT and public administration.
According to him, the agency has deployed more than 10,000 professionals to over 40 countries since its inception.
“Many of these countries have acknowledged the impact of the NTAC Volunteers Scheme in strengthening their local institutions and improving service delivery,” he said.
Yakub added that some former volunteers now occupy senior academic positions, including vice-chancellors and deputy vice-chancellors, in universities across Africa.
He also cited the appointment of an NTAC volunteer to lead Sierra Leone’s COVID-19 response as evidence of the programme’s international credibility.
On the agency’s recent expansion, Yakub said NTAC had aligned its operations with President Bola Tinubu’s 4-D foreign policy and revived partnerships with countries including Rwanda, Jamaica, Seychelles and Zanzibar, while expanding into the Caribbean.
“The current expansion is in response to growing international demand for Nigerian professionals,” he said.
Yakub disclosed that Jamaica is in advanced talks to recruit a large number of Nigerian health professionals, whose salaries would be fully funded by the Jamaican government.
He said 274 Nigerian volunteers are currently serving in 13 countries, while Nigeria is finalising new technical aid agreements with Zambia, Ethiopia, Angola, Trinidad and Tobago, and Barbados to further expand the programme.