Foreign news

Rwanda’s Foreign Ministry Commends Tinubu, Says TAC Scheme, Remains the Best

Published

11 months ago

November 14, 2023

Joel Ajayi

Rwanda’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation has lauded President Bola Tinubu on the Nigerian Technical Aid Corps (TAC) scheme, describing it as a noble and truest platform for the promotion of Pan-Africanism.

This is in a statement issued by Mr Nkem Anyata-Lafia, the Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to Dr Yusuf Yakub, the Director-General (DG) of the Technical Aid Corps in Africa (DTAC).

It will be recalled that the DTAC boss and some senior staff embarked on a four-day Administrative, Monitoring, and Evaluation exercise in four countries in East Africa.

Also, the team will monitor the TAC volunteers in Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Seychelles.

Anyata-Lafia said that the Minister of State, Mr James Kabarebe, said this in Kigali when the ministry received the delegation of DTAC led by Dr. Yakub.

He also commended Tinubu’s administration for the big brother approach.

Anyata-Lafia also extolled Tinubu’s gesture for continuing to advance the course of development through technology transfer, skills acquisition, and scholarship for African people.

Kabarebe said that, although Nigeria, like other nations of the world, had its own challenges, its commitment to the leadership and development of Africa and some parts of the globe through soft-power diplomacy remained laudable and worthy of emulation.

He said that Nigeria has continued to use its huge population, size, and early advancement in matters of education to benefit all parts of Africa.

The minister reminicenced the positive inspiration projected by writers such as, Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka, and Cyprian Ekwensi, among many others.

Kabarebe said, “These were not only an instrument of soft power that sold Nigeria to the world, but was all that Nigeria needed to stamp its authority as a global super player in world affairs.

Furthermore, he highlighted the huge gap between other African countries and their goals, adding that TAC deserves Africa’s support.

The minister promised that the ministry would leverage the existing cordial relations between Rwanda and Nigeria to strengthen their cooperation through the scheme.

Speaking earlier, Yakub said that the delegation was in Rwanda to monitor, evaluate and as well to review the activities of the TAC volunteer scheme in its recipient countries and among the volunteers.

He added that the visit was also aimed at allowing him to meet and familiarise with State officials and other stakeholders in the TAC scheme across parts of Africa after being appointed to head the agency by Tinubu.

The DTAC delegation also met with the Minister of State for Education, Ms Claudette Irere, Nigeria’s High Commissioner of Nigeria in Kigali, Amb. Suleiman Sani and the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Finance), University of Rwanda, Ms Francoise Kayitore.

They also visited the remaining volunteer of the TAC scheme at the University of Rwanda, Dr Nasiru Sani, a Health Information and Community Medicine expert, among others.

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Foreign news

Nigerians lament over exorbitant UK visa application fees

Published

2 months ago

August 22, 2024

The Gleamer

Nigerians on Thursday expressed concern over the exorbitant charges for various UK visa application fees, calling on the Foreign Affairs Minister to look into that area.

This complaint was done in a vox-pop interviews by different UK applicants in the country.

Some of them, however, complained about not getting the value for money spent, and the service delivery is also not efficient.

Speaking on the matter, Mr. Ajayi Okon said that he feels they are beginning to make so much money out of Nigerians because most Nigerians love to go there based on proximity.

“I think it is high time the government intervenes; at times it looks like extortion to me. You will pay a priority visa, which is over a million naira, to get a response within 2 days.

“The next thing, you will get an email telling you because of high demand, it will take another 15 days, so what is the essence of the priority paid for?

“ If you are collecting money for a particular service, you should have factored in how you want to deliver efficient service.

However, Mrs. Sarah Mbah said that on the application portal, the self-service option, which is cheaper, is not accessible easily.

According to her, after paying so much on visa fees, you will still be denied without an option of appeal despite the money spent.

“I think the government needs to pay attention, especially in those areas of visa application to other countries.

“The fees are getting too high, and the service delivery is also not satisfactory. Nigerians will outright be denied without any right to appeal after paying so much.

“ I feel is not right; some cases should be allowed to appeal, especially looking at the resources involved, so people won’t feel cheated,“ she added.

Furthermore, Favor Adamu said that the perception is usually that it is people who have the resources that apply for UK visas, but the truth is, people save up for those fees.

She said that because of the high rate of migration, they usually suspect that everyone coming to their country won’t want to return, and based on that, they use that to denial people.

Adamu said based on this, the fees should not be too much, so such a person won’t feel cheated because they cannot even appeal the decision.

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