Odimmegwa Johnpeter/Abuja
The Government of Singapore on Thursday pledged to partner with the federal government in boosting Nigerian youth capacity building.
Dr Maliki Osman, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office of Singapore, who led delegation to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, disclosed this while fielding questions from journalists during visits in Abuja.
Osman, also Second Minister of Education and Foreign Affairs of Singapore, said the delegation was in Nigeria to establish new frontiers for deepening bilateral relations between both countries in the area of youth development
Osman said. “We agree that there are many new areas of opportunities for young people and Nigeria, country with young population within middle age of 17-years shows great potential for manpower development.
“Singapore has gone through very fast-paced development, and we have seen how important it is for human development, as a key driving force that is naturally what Singapore was like.
“We are a country with little natural resources, and human resources are the only resources we have. Our experience in human capacity development is something we can share with our Nigerian counterparts.
“I will be meeting the Minister of Education to further discuss our potential collaboration.
“There is a proposal on technical vocational training for Nigerian young people, and we are looking at those proposals to see how we can advance relationships through support to our Nigerian counterparts.”
He further promised to prioritise the capacity building of government officials, saying Singapore had a cooperation programme in such regard.
“This includes a recently announced special package for our friends in the African continent under the Singapore African Partnership.
“This provides opportunities for us to customise training programmes in areas that our friends seem necessary.
“Counterparts from different ministries in Nigeria can tell us what aspects they can learn from us, as long as we can share our experiences.
“We will be happy to customise those training programmes. We also provide tailor-made programmes and priority allocation to officials from Nigeria and other African countries based on programmes that exist.
“We also provide post-graduate scholarships for senior officials to come to Singapore to study at a post-graduate level; we are happy to journey with Nigeria on capacity building,” he added.
He mentioned that the country would create more economic engagements to promote growth in ICT, AI, and renewable energy as new frontiers for deepening Singapore’s bilateral relations with Nigeria.
He reiterated that both countries would work closely together amidst economic challenges that existed in different parts of the world.
While receiving the delegation, Amb. Dunoma Ahmed, Permanent-Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said the government would continue to create an enabling environment for businesses to thrive in the country.
Ahmed said, “We commend contributions by Singapore to our GDP and job creation, as President Bola Tinubu’s administration is diversifying the economy into non-oil areas.
“These include mining, agriculture, renewable energy and tourism; we invite Singaporean companies interested in such areas to come and invest, as Nigeria is now one of the most attractive investment destinations globally.”
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