Indian High Commissioner to Nigeria, Gangadharan Balasubramanian, has made an assurance that empowering bilateral relations with Nigeria remains a strategic part of his nation’s foreign policy as both nations have a lot to benefit.
Balasubramanian made the following announcement during the commemoration of the Indian Technical & Economic Programme (ITEC) 2022 at the High Commission in Abuja.
The ITEC Day 2022 was celebrated with around 250 ITEC alumni as well as Nigerian dignitaries in presence. The annual commemoration also provides unique opportunities to ITEC Alumni to reconnect with each other.
As per the envoy, the programme has been successful in Nigeria in the recent 58 years as thousands of Nigerians have benefitted from several fields such as defense training, ICT, Science Technology & Innovation (STI) Renewable energy, & made meaningful impacts along with contributions to Nigeria’s development.
He added that the ITEC Programme is human-centric and in line with the vision of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He mentioned that India’s development partnership is in line with the priorities of partner nations and on terms that are easy with the partner nations.
He mentioned that, “ITEC was started by India in 1964 and since then we have been exchanging several courses for our friends in partner nations including Nigeria and I am really very happy to say that several thousand Nigerians have actually benefited.”
Meanwhile, he said that, “We give around 250 slots in the civilian sector &about 150 slots for training, short term courses in the defence sector and most of them have been used on a daily basis. So for a time of 58 years, you can see how these numbers would have multiplied & we are very happy to see Nigerian friends who have done these short-term programmes, are equipped themselves &have come back to contribute to the economy as well as to the development of Nigeria.”
