EU to partner FG on energy, transport, education, others

EUROPEAN Union has announced its readiness to partner Nigerian Government in the area of energy, education, climate change, as well as transport and science and technology.

This partnership, according to the EU, would expand the cooperation of the two countries beyond the traditional field of operations, boost their economies and in particular improve research institutions in Nigeria.

Ambassador Head of European Union delegation to Nigeria, Ambassador Michel Arrion, announced this, while leading a EU team on a courtesy visit to the Minister of Science and Technology, Dr Ogbonnaya Onu, in his office, in Abuja.

He explained that there was a specific programme dedicated for the partnership tagged “Harrison 2020” in which about 60 Nigerian institutions and universities were to take part in Lagos next month (November).

Ambassador Arrion pointed out that two months after the successful hosting of the conference in Lagos, Nigeria should be able to identify enormous benefits, despite its endowment with a lot of natural resources.

He said there were about 300 to 400 programmes in some African universities in which only one per cent of such programmes was in Nigerian universities, saying the conference would open a lot of benefits, especially in the area of education, energy, climate change, transport and science and technology.

Responding, the minister, Dr Onu, assured the EU team that his ministry would work very closely with the union and fully participate in the forthcoming Harrison 2020 in Lagos, believing that the partnership would boost the social economy of the two countries.