Olimatou Coker
Eleven lecturers from Nigeria have been deployed to the University of Applied Science, Engineering and Technology (USET), for a two-year voluntary service.
The senior academics, one of whom is a female are mostly professors, PhD holders, and doctorates in the field of engineering.
They are part of the Nigerian Government’s Technical Aid Corp (NTAC) program which supports African and Caribbean countries with professionals in various fields to meet their manpower needs.
The volunteers who were deployed at the request of the Gambia Ministry of Higher Education, Research, Science and Technology, will be serving at the University of Science, Engineering and Technology (USET)
Mrs. Olayinka Temidayo Balogun, Acting Nigeria High Commissioner to Banjul, said the current batch of professors are special, different from the one they always had. “Because this set is coming in to assist the new university in the Gambia to build indigenous engineers in the Gambia. Nigeria has been involved in technical aid since 1987. And this is just to build the capacity of friendly African countries and other countries in the Caribbean. So this is not the only country we have the NTAC. We have the NTAC in other countries in Africa and even in the Caribbean”.
Acting High Commissioner Balogun, called on the volunteers not only to be engineers but to be ambassadors of their country.
Samuel Owusu Ofori, the Vice Chancellor of USET, called on the volunteers to do their best in delivery.
In his vote of thanks, Prof. Yusuf Abdulfatch one of the lecturers, said they are ready to deliver their mission to USET as expected.
