Under the leadership of the new Director of PAULESI, Professor Esther TITILAYO AKINLABI, a meeting was held in Abuja between the Director General of the Directorate of Technical Cooperation in Africa (DTCA) and herself the Director of PAULESI, in order to discuss on the establishment of cooperation ties between the two institutions.

Taking advantage of the visit in Ibadan of the Commissioner for Human Resources Science and Technology, H.E. Prof. Sarah Anyang Agbor, the Director General of DTCA travelled to Ibadan to discuss on the formalization of this partnership.  

Fruitful deliberations were held between the representatives of the two structures. DTCA team presented the Nigerian Technical Cooperation Fund (NTCF) which was created in 2004 as a special funding window from the NTF (Nigerian Trust Fund) and domiciled at AfDB. They discussed its goal, which is funding any project or programme in Regional Member States under the broad objective of achieving regional cooperation and integration. They also mentioned existing grant facilities that were established in 2001 for Nigeria’s assistance to Africa. The various areas supported by DTCA include:G education, integration, health, agriculture, science and technology, training capacity building and collaborative research programmes. 

Following that brilliant presentation, HRST Commissioner, requested the multidimensional support of DTCA to PAULESI, which was agreed by this the Director General of this institution. Thus, in 2021 and 2022, DTCA will provide support to PAULESI. An MoU will be signed in the coming months on this purpose.

This cooperation is highly welcome and we hope that other institutions will express interest in cooperating with PAULESI and PAU as a whole. But I the meantime, we say congratulations to PAULESI’s Director.