Adeniyi Olugbemi, Sokoto

The Ambassador of Nigeria to Jordan, Faruk Malami Yabo, has commended the management of the National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure, NASENI, for it quick response in the implementation of collaboration between Nigeria and Jordan on technology transfer, training, food security and agricultural mechanisation.

Faruk Malami at an interaction with selected journalists in Sokoto pointed that, in fulfilment of the mandate given to him by President Muhammadu Buhari in Jordan, to make sure Nigeria entered into bilateral relationship with institutions from Jordan, the NASENI collaboration materialised with speed.

It would be recalled that recently, the Federal Government through NASENI signed a Memorandum of Understanding, MoU, with Ebsilon Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, on education and training development to establish technology transfer that would enable NASENI, through the implementation of CertVeri System to offer state-of-art online instantaneous certificates verification to beneficiaries.

The system will enable NASENI to help different entities such as, ministries, embassies, universities, educational entities and some other government departments, to use CertVeri System as one-stop station to digitally display their certificates for authentication whenever it is required.

According to the envoy, “the MoU that NASENI signed with the Decapolis on Food & Agriculture Traceability Technology Solution would enable Nigeria to explore the Decapolis Food Guard platform, to certify the safety and quality of Nigerian food and agriculture products and improve the efficiency of production and farming operations.

“The NASENI deal with the Jordanese organisations was aimed at creating new economic development paths for Nigeria’s industrialisation which had been the focus and commitment of the Agency.

“This MoU is not a regular one, the implementation has started in Nigeria as, it is only technology that can make Nigeria catch up with development around the world hence, the reason for Nigeria’s on- going collaboration with Jordan.”

Faruk Malami also revealed that, the embassy under his watch has consolidated on President Muhammadu Buhari previous visits to Jordan on strengthening security collaboration.

He said, “unknown to many, Nigeria has strong military collaboration with Jordan, and before my appointment, the federal government have been in talk with Jordan on security cooperation. The President has been in Jordan twice in 2017 and 2019 and, what we have been able to do, is improve on that relationship.

“It is also on record that, we have succeded in establishing an interface between Jordan engineers and the Nigeria Society of Engineers, NSE, because per capital reserve of Jordan engineers is quite high. Out of a population of about seven million people, they have one hundred and ninety eight thousand engineers, meaning in every eight or nine people in Jordan, you have an engineer. So, the NSE decided to explore and collaborate with their Jordanese counterparts.

“What we could have done in the area of education was stalled with the outbreak of Coronavirus pandemic but, now that human restrictions is being relaxed worldwide, we hope that, we would be able to explore stronger educational opportunities to Nigeria and particularly, Sokoto state,” he stated.