UNESCO establishes regional centres in Nigeria 

UNESCO establishes regional centres in Nigeria 
Lawan Hamidu, Abuja

The Nigerian Government has welcomed the decision of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNESCO to locate two international institutes in Nigeria.

The institutes are; the International Institute for Bio-Technology to be located at the University of Nigeria Nsukka, Southern Nigeria and the Centre for River Basin Management at the National Water Resources Centre in Kaduna, Northern Nigeria.

This was part of decisions reached by the Federal Executive Council at its weekly meeting in Abuja following a report presented to it, on the Thirty-Sixth Biennial Conference of UNESCO.

Speaking to correspondents after the meeting, the Minister of Information, Mr. Labaran Maku said the institutions would undertake research on bio-technology diversity, challenges in the management of river basins as well as their importance to national development.

He said that the UNESCO Conference also elected Nigeria into the International Bureau for Education, a body charged with the responsibility of education content around the world.

“The decision of UNESCO was in recognition of Nigeria’s effort to the development of education in line with its transformation agenda.” Maku said.

The report of the Conference also elected Nigeria into UNESCO Executive Council for four years, and to establish regional centre in Nigeria to serve the West African region.

Mr Maku said at the briefing that “Nigeria being one of the key members of UNESCO should benefit from the activities of the UN Agency.”

Other reports

Other reports discussed at the Executive Council Meeting was the recommendation of the 33rd Regular Course of the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, NIPSS, which focused on ways of managing crises in the country.

Mr Maku in the briefing reiterated government’s commitment to the implementation of the recommendation that include youth employment, institutional framework for detecting and management of crises in the country.

“These recommendations have been taken seriously by the Federal Government and indeed in the coming weeks you’ll see that aspects of these recommendations particularly on generating employment to unemployed youth would   be implemented by the Federal Government which has already started with YouWin programme we are going to deepened it now with the Subsidy Re-investment Programme, SURE.” Maku said.

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