Abuja: The Nigerian Technical Aid Corps (NTAC) plans to expand beyond its traditional South-South mandate, deploying Nigerian professionals for fees to countries across Asia, Europe, and the Americas. The Director-General of NTAC, Dr. Yusuf Yakub, disclosed this on Thursday at the deployment exercise for 18 Technical Aid Corps (TAC) volunteers billed for Rwanda.
According to News Agency of Nigeria, Yakub said the new TAC volunteers to Rwanda were expected to put in their best, just as their predecessors had done over the past 38 years. He described NTAC as an instrument of soft-power diplomacy through which the Nigerian Government had, for 38 years, deployed experts to African, Caribbean, and Pacific (ACP) countries under South-South cooperation.
Yakub announced that NTAC was introducing a new initiative that would enable Nigeria to deploy its experts or export its labor for a fee to countries across the world, rather than limiting the program to ACP countries. He disclosed that Nigeria was on the verge of signing an agreement with Jamaica for the deployment of about 400 experts and confirmed that Nigeria signed an agreement with Thailand, with several other countries in Asia and Europe expressing interest in the program.
The initiative is designed to tackle ‘Japa’, or irregular migration, and reduce unemployment. Yakub stated that the government would ‘start packaging its citizens and exporting them to other countries of the world to work with dignity,’ allowing citizens deployed under the scheme to travel with their families and remittances from the workers to boost the country’s revenue.
Yakub further emphasized that the agency would continue to scale up deployments while finalizing new bilateral agreements in the coming months. NAN reports that the 18 volunteers departing for Rwanda are the latest in NTAC’s monthly deployments to partner countries.
Speaking in separate interviews with NAN, the TAC volunteers expressed their appreciation for the opportunity to serve Nigeria honorably. Dr. Idris Badamasi, deployed to the Catholic University of Rwanda, highlighted the program’s role as a structured tool of soft power and diplomacy that showcased Nigeria’s immense human resources. He acknowledged the recent bilateral relationships and memoranda of understanding (MoUs) with Thailand and Jamaica would help curb irregular migration and generate foreign exchange through organized labor export.
Prof. Emmanuel Onyeche of the University of Benin, deployed to the Protestant University of Rwanda, expressed gratitude for being selected from more than 10,000 applicants. He saw the deployment as a vital opportunity to change global perceptions of Nigerians by demonstrating ingenuity and service to humanity through core academic pillars.
Similarly, Prof. Abdulazeez Salami of Modibbo Adama University, Yola, pledged to transfer his lifelong commitment to education and service as a proud ambassador of Nigeria to his students in the host community. Salami emphasized his intent to foster robust institutional collaborations between Nigerian and Rwandan universities and counter negative stereotypes through excellence in human capacity building.