NTAC Plans Dignified Skilled Labour Export, Targets Global Demand for Nigerian Experts
NTAC Plans Dignified Skilled Labour Export, Targets Global Demand for Nigerian Experts
NTAC Plans Dignified Skilled Labour Export, Targets Global Demand for Nigerian Experts
**By NASSNEWS**
The Director-General of the Nigerian Technical Aid Corps (NTAC), Rt. Hon. Yusuf Buba Yakub, has said the agency is exploring structured opportunities for Nigerian professionals to work abroad as part of efforts to expand Nigeria’s technical assistance and strengthen its soft power.
Yakub disclosed this on Thursday, September 17, 2026, during a media interaction on the achievements of the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration at the NTAC Complex in Abuja.
According to him, the initiative is aimed at creating legitimate and dignified avenues for Nigerian professionals to contribute their expertise internationally while fostering stronger relationships between Nigeria and other countries.
He said the approach would also promote what he described as “citizen-to-citizen contact,” particularly between Nigerians and people of African descent and other communities around the world.
“Let us reach our brothers all over the world, especially the blacks. We are reaching out to them and they are connecting back to their roots. Even the Asian countries too,” Yakub said.
The DG said the initiative was part of a broader effort to ensure that Nigerians seeking opportunities abroad could do so through structured and legitimate channels.
“Our people all over know about the policies. They will not jump into the ocean to japa or any unwanted countries. But now, with sending out our experts, we see that there is a citizen-to-citizen contact. So that is the main objective of this scheme,” he said.
Yakub described the Technical Aid Corps as an instrument of Nigeria’s soft power, arguing that diplomacy extends beyond government-to-government engagements.
“This soft power method is used to make friendship amongst countries,” he said.
He explained that Nigerian doctors, teachers, engineers, lawyers, agricultural experts and other professionals working in partner countries could help build institutions and deepen relations between Nigeria and those countries.
“Diplomacy is not conducted only in conference rooms,” he said in his prepared address, adding that every Nigerian professional serving abroad could, in practical terms, represent the country.
The DG said NTAC was therefore exploring arrangements through which countries requiring Nigerian expertise could engage professionals through structured, remunerated and mutually beneficial programmes.
He specifically cited Jamaica, which he said had expressed interest in engaging hundreds of Nigerian professionals, as an indication of what he described as international demand for Nigerian expertise.
According to him, the emerging initiative could also transform NTAC into a stronger instrument of economic diplomacy.
“The world knows that Nigeria possesses an enormous reservoir of professional and technical talent. Our challenge is to create legitimate and structured avenues through which that talent can serve international markets while generating value for the professionals, the receiving countries and Nigeria,” Yakub said.
He added that NTAC’s objective was not to create a one-way relationship, but to promote mutually beneficial cooperation in which Nigeria could give knowledge, receive knowledge and create opportunities for its professionals.
The DG also linked the initiative to the broader foreign policy framework of the Tinubu administration, saying NTAC’s activities aligned with the administration’s emphasis on Democracy, Development, Demography and the Diaspora.
Yakub said the agency’s strategy of “Repositioning, Retooling and Re-engineering” was designed to give NTAC greater relevance in international development cooperation.
He further said the agency would continue to identify gaps in partner countries and train and deploy Nigerian professionals capable of meeting those needs.
“We feel gaps,” he said, stressing the importance of developing the capacity required to respond to international demand for Nigerian expertise.
Yakub said the dignity of Nigerian professionals abroad remained central to the initiative, adding that the agency’s volunteers had served as representatives of the country in their host nations.
“Is it a great thing to dominate the world by sending your citizens with dignity?” he asked, while noting that, according to him, NTAC volunteers had not absconded from their assignments.
He said the ultimate objective was to build stronger international partnerships while ensuring that Nigerian expertise remained a valuable component of global development cooperation.
