…Says over 1,000 volunteers deployed in last 3 years
Nigeria is set to deploy 400 personnel to Jamaica for paid employment, the Director-General of the Nigerian Technical Aid Corps (NTAC), Yusuf Buba Yakub, disclosed on Thursday.
Yakub also revealed that no fewer than 1,000 volunteers have been deployed to Caribbean and Pacific countries over the last three years.
NTAC was established in 1987 as a soft-power diplomatic tool for Nigeria’s foreign policy and has deployed over 10,000 volunteers to 40 countries since its inception.
The NTAC DG made this disclosure during a media interaction marking his three years in office.
He stated that Nigeria has signed an agreement with Jamaica to deploy 400 experts under an initiative that sends skilled manpower abroad for a fee.
“We signed an agreement with Jamaica. It will be finalized in writing, and we are starting with about 400 experts,” he said.
He stressed: “We have introduced the exploration of skilled labor export with dignity. The world knows that Nigeria possesses an enormous reservoir of professional and technical talent. Our challenge is to create legitimate and structured avenues through which that talent can serve international markets while generating value for the professionals, the receiving countries, and Nigeria.
“NTAC is, therefore, exploring arrangements under which countries requiring Nigerian expertise can engage our professionals through structured, remunerated, and mutually beneficial programs. Jamaica, for instance, has expressed interest in engaging hundreds of Nigerian professionals. This demonstrates the international demand for Nigerian expertise. This emerging direction has the potential to transform NTAC into an even stronger instrument of economic diplomacy.”
He added that the initiative would help curb the risky “Japa” syndrome.
Regarding the number of volunteers deployed in the last three years, Yakub said: “Every year, we deploy close to 400 volunteers. So, within the last three years, we have deployed about a thousand volunteers.”
He noted that these deployments were executed at no extra cost to Nigeria.
“We don’t pay a dime to the recipient country. Instead, we partner with them to provide accommodation, utilities like water and electricity bills, and local transportation for our volunteers.
“Therefore, Nigeria is not losing anything. Instead, we are gaining friendship, valuable exposure, and professional experience when our experts return, while securing our standing among the community of nations.”
He added that beneficiary countries consistently express their appreciation to Nigeria.
Yakub explained that this initiative earned Nigeria a spot in the Total Official Support for Sustainable Development (TOSSD), a 28-nation UN-partnered framework for measuring data in Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Consequently, Nigeria has been reclassified from being merely a recipient nation to a major contributor to the SDGs, securing a seat on the TOSSD Steering Committee last year.
Under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, he said NTAC has sought to give the program renewed vigor and a stronger strategic focus. This is because NTAC naturally aligns with the President’s 4-D Foreign Policy framework: Democracy, Development, Demography, and Diaspora.
“I have used this foreign policy initiative to drive my strategic 3-R Agenda of Repositioning, Retooling, and Re-engineering NTAC for greater national relevance and improved service delivery across our partner countries over the last three years.
“Our policy is straightforward: if Nigeria sends a professional abroad in the service of the nation, that Nigerian must be treated with dignity. We have, therefore, continued to strengthen arrangements relating to volunteers’ allowances, deployment, welfare, monitoring, debriefing, and reintegration. Our vision is for NTAC to become a globally recognized platform for technical cooperation, professional exchange, skilled labor mobility, and Nigeria’s soft-power diplomacy,” he concluded.
