By Tony Obiechina, Abuja
At least least 250 foreign jobs will be secured by Nigerians as the National Talent Export Programme (NATEP) on Tuesday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with UTEL Ltd, a Nigerian subsidiary of Unique Agency of Kuwait.
The firm is a leading provider of expatriate employees for the government agencies and departments in the State of Kuwait. The partnership with UTEL is to aggregate foreign jobs for Nigerians from Kuwait and other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries.
A statement signed by Dr Femi Adeluyi,
National Coordinator of NATEP said the development is in line with the Federal Government’s aim to forge mutually beneficial partnerships with nations and global institutions to facilitate the provision of jobs for Nigerians.
According to the statement, the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr. Doris Uzoka-Anite, supervised the MoU signing ceremony between the Ministry and UTEL Ltd, to connect Nigerians to foreign jobs in Kuwait, Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and Scandinavian countries, among others.
The MoU will be executed by the National Talent Export Programme (NATEP), which noted that “the signing of the MoU marks another milestone in our efforts to ensure that Nigerians have access to quality employment opportunities.
“These employment opportunities could be direct employment and emigration of our talent or utilisation of the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) model for gainful and meaningful employment for those based in Nigeria.
“Through NATEP, Nigeria can honourably export her talents in a mutually beneficial and reputation preserving way, putting an end to illegal migration and the embarrassment therefrom to the country”, Dr Adeluyi further stated.
“Nigerians in diaspora are known to rise like cream to the top of their professions and data validates this notion. For example, research from the Migration Policy Institute Washington-DC, indicates that more than have of Nigerian immigrants (54%) are likely to occupy management positions, compared to 32% of other immigrants and 39% of the US-born population.
“Similarly, the 2021 Office for National Statistic Report from the United Kingdom (UK) showed that 44% of adult residents born outside the UK have some form of qualification, compared to 31% of UK-born residents, while 66% Nigeria immigrants have received one form of qualification or another. It goes to show the level of quality that Nigerians can bring to the table.
In efforts to promote talent and services export, as well as managed migration, the MoU specified a “1+2” approach for the partnership.
“With this approach, for every Nigerian that is selected for a foreign job through NATEP, the partners will commit to helping connect an outsourced role to the Nigerian BPO ecosystem and also support in the training a Nigerian to refresh the local workforce.”, the National Coordinator further stated. READ ALSO:
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In her concluding remarks, the Minister, Dr Uzoka-Anite assured the partners that Nigeria is fully committed to upskilling its talent pool to power the industrial revitalization plan of the Federal Government and to also provide skilled citizens for global talent opportunities.
Dignitaries present at the ceremony which took place at NATEP new office building included, Mr. Athbi Hussein Al Awadi (from Kuwait); Mr. Tahir Saleh Hashim (from Oman); and Advokat Torgeir Knutsen (from Norway).
Others were Mr Florin Talapan, Romanian Ambassador to Nigeria; Amb Nura Abba Rimi, Permanent Secretary, of the Ministry and Chief Host, Faruk Yabo, Chairman/CEO of UTEL.
