By Tabora Bojang
At least seven Nigerian lecturers and four lawyers have been deployed to the education and legal sectors of The Gambia under the Nigerian government’s Technical Aid Corp programme (NTAC).
The volunteers, which include professors with expertise in legal and engineering disciplines, will be deployed to the University of Applied Science, Engineering and Technology (USET) and the Ministry of Justice.
The Nigerian Technical Aid Programme is a capacity building and support scheme aiming to provide skilled professionals to friendly African, Caribbean and Pacific countries to meet their man power needs.
Under this agreement, the Nigeria Government will cover the payment salaries of the volunteers while the Gambia provides them a comfortable accommodation, transportation and work environment to enable them deliver their mandate.
According to the acting Nigerian High Commissioner to the Gambia Olayinka Temidayo Balogun, the deployment of the latest team of volunteers is an evidence of the excellent bilateral relations between Abuja and Banjul, stating that The Gambia has been a beneficiary of this scheme since 1989 where the country has benefitted from the services of over 500 volunteers in the educational, health and judicial sectors.
High Commissioner Balogun urged the new volunteers to be good ambassadors of Nigeria by giving their best to their sectors of employment.
The volunteers were handed over to the officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for onward deployment to USET and the Ministry of Justice at a ceremony held at the Embassy yesterday.
The Director of African Division at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Omar Baldeh thanked the political leadership of the two countries while expressing delight to receive the second batch of volunteers in 2024.
Solicitor General Hussein Thomasi described the relationship between The Gambia and Nigeria as “very cordial”.
He said the arrival of the new volunteers especially those to be deployed to his Ministry is timely as this is a time when the Ministry needs the services of highly qualified lawyers to accomplish its enormous tasks.
