14th April, 2019
The Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) says it is deepening its partnership with universities in the United Kingdom (UK) to enhance its human capital development programmes.
NDDC Managing Director (MD), Prof. Nelson Brambaifa, disclosed this in a statement issued by the commission’s Director of Corporate Affairs, Charles Odili, on Saturday in Port Harcourt.
Brambaifa was quoted to have said this at the end of his five-day working visit to some universities in the UK.
He reiterated the commission’s willingness to advance its foreign scholarship programmes.
“We visited some universities in the UK to find out the challenges scholars are facing in their various institutions with focus to resolving them.
“The visit afforded us the opportunity to explore the prospect of deepening our relationship with foreign universities and take advantage of other mutually beneficial programmes.
“We interacted with scholars benefiting from the commission’s Foreign Post Graduate Scholarship Scheme in the Universities of Coventry, Derby, Salford, Birmingham, Hertfordshire and Huddersfield respectively,” he said.
Brambaifa said the NDDC delegation also had a fruitful meeting with officials of the University of Coventry as well as the International Centre for Transformational Entrepreneurship.
He said the institutions identified four major areas, which needed further collaboration in the scholarship programme.
“There was an agreement for the establishment of specific Master’s level scholarships for best graduating students from universities in the Niger Delta region.
“Among the agreements are the establishment of a Doctoral Training Centre and establishment of platform for the promotion of innovation and enterprise.
“The fourth is the establishment of an e-library system which will allow researchers and scholars from the Niger Delta to have access to materials published from top journals and electronic databases,” he said.