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| Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas |
The company said it has committed $1 million each to the training of Nigerians who are involved in the building of six of its new LNG ships in Korea.
The financial grant was announced by the Managing Director of NLNG Limited, Babs Omotowa, at a briefing in Abuja. The briefing had in attendance Vice-Chancellors of the recipient universities: University of Ibadan (UI), University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN), University of Maiduguri (Unimaid), University of Port Harcourt (Uniport), University of Ilorin (Unilorin) and Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) Zaria.
Omotowa stated that the NLNG will spend in each of the benefitting universities N340 million ($2 million) for construction of modern engineering laboratories and installation of cutting-edge engineering laboratory equipment in line with the objectives of its newly approved Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) for universities tagged, NLNG University Support Programme (USP).
He explained that the six universities were selected based on their top positions within their geopolitical zones as well as by the rankings of the National Universities Commission (NUC) and other global bodies.
Speaking on the rationale behind the endowment, Omotowa noted that the USP which is expected to kick off immediately after all formal paper works have been concluded, said that the company decided to contribute in building Nigeria's in-country engineering capacity through the programme.
He added that the programme which will be managed in partnership with the universities, will run for an initial two years after which an evaluation of its impacts will be taken to determine its next phase and beneficiaries.
"No Nigerian university is ranked amongst the 500 best universities in the world today, neither is our ranking amongst African universities impressive. All the predictions about Nigeria's ascent as a developed country will only come true if and when we also take firm steps to fix our educational system. Well-meaning stakeholders need to urgently join hands to turnaround the poor quality of education in the country for the future of Nigeria to be better," Omotowa said.
He further said: "This is why Nigeria LNG, committed to helping build a better Nigeria, is initiating the N2 billion NLNG University Support Programme to help bring engineering education up to speed with world class standard.
NLNG's CRS portfolio spans education, healthcare, infrastructure, enterprise and capacity development across the country. But amongst all these, we consider education a special focus area. This, therefore is part of our contribution to complement the various efforts of government, the academia and other stakeholders to improve the quality of the education in the country."
On the branch of engineering that the fund will be committed to, Omotowa said that the company has chosen to focus on development of electrical and mechanical engineering.
The Vice-Chancellor of UI, Prof. Ade Adewale, who spoke on behalf of the beneficiary universities, explained that the breakdown of partnership between Nigeria's academia and industries has greatly contributed to the disparity in the pool of competent graduate available to meet industry demands.
He pledged the commitment of the universities to the ideals of the USP, adding that: "It appeared like a joke when the discussion started and then it moved into realities. We remain committed to the concept of partnership which the managing director has said."
Meanwhile, Omotowa earlier disclosed that the company has committed $1 million each to the training of 600 Nigerians that are involved in the building of six of its new LNG ships in Korea. He noted that the commitment was made to advance Nigeria's expertise in ship building.
Omotowa equally stated that the company has in line with the Nigerian Content law dedicated spend five per cent of total expenditure on construction of the ship on Nigerian goods and materials.
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