Deployment of volunteers: We are not owing a dime

Says 15 countries visited for bilateral talks

From Aidoghie Paulinus, Abuja

The Director-General, Nigeria Technical Aid Corps (NTAC), Yusuf Buba Yakub, has said the agency is not owing a dime as far as the deployment of volunteers is concerned.

Buba stated this at a press briefing commemorating his second year anniversary since assumption of office in Abuja.

Buba recalled that on assumption of office in August 2023, he inherited about 198 volunteers that were serving the nation in different capacities outside the country.

Buba also recalled that at the time, deployment of volunteers was almost temporarily suspended due to fluctuation in exchange rate, which made every foreign service organisation or agency that paid its staff in foreign currencies to have their budget depleted to about 60 per cent.

He however said that having been informed that the agency cannot deploy volunteers due to paucity of funds, he insisted that that was his only assignment in the agency and had to immediately order for the deployment of volunteers to Liberia in September 2023.

Buba further said that despite inheriting a lot of unpaid salaries of volunteers and a lot of unpaid ticket money in hundreds of millions, the agency has cleared the debt.

Buba said: “By the grace of God and with the support of Mr President, today, we have cleared all our debt, we are not owing a dime, we have paid all our volunteers and we have been deploying some times, three times in a month, non-stop from September 2023 till date. And our volunteers are doing very well.”

The former Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs also said so far, NTAC has visited over 15 countries for bilateral talks.

“We have resumed bilateral meetings. You know that the Nigerian Technical Aid Corps is established to deploy soft power diplomacy to African, Caribbean and the Pacific part of the world.

“The target is to make friends to gain respect, to gain dignity and also to take our position as top among the committee of nations. So, we engage on bilateral meetings.

“At least, every month, we are meeting with top government officials at the ministerial level of different countries to re-energise and resuscitate our relationships that are in most cases comatose. And this we have successfully done and we have resumed deployment of volunteers to such countries,” Buba stated.

He disclosed that NTAC has also opened up new countries, particularly in the Caribbean and in other parts of Africa.

“And so, our scope is increasing,” he added.

On the state of the agency he inherited, Buba explained that he met a dilapidated structure, even as he said as former Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs, he knew that NTAC was only receiving capital budget of about N15 million.

He however said in his last year as chairman of the committee, he tried to increase the capital budget to over a hundred million naira which was only meant for monitoring and evaluation.