NUC, NBTI sign MoU on entrepreneurship

AS part of their desire to boost entrepreneurial activities in Nigerian university system, the National Board for Technology Incubation (NBTI) and the National Universities Commission (NUC) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to develop an entrepreneurship education curriculum in Nigerian universities aimed at cultivating a durable culture of entrepreneurship in higher institutions of learning in an effort to bolster the country’s economy towards 2020.
The Director-General of NBTI, Prof. Gambo Laraba Abdullahi, and the Executive Secretary of the NUC, Prof. Julius A. Okojie, signed the MoU on behalf of the two agencies in Abuja.
The MoU requires, among others, that both parties develop workable modalities for managing and implementing an institution-based technology incubation programme in Nigeria and provide technical support to the institutions in setting up the Technology Incubation Centres (TICs); provide periodic training and human capital development to managers and incubators at the TICs; and to ensure compliance with national policies and guidelines on technology incubation.
Abdullahi, a former Vice Chancellor of University of Abuja, said at the occasion that NBTI was partnering the NUC, the regulator of the Nigerian universities education, to fashion out an education programme leading to the setting up of Technology Incubation Centres in the Nigerian universities.
She said her agency had already fashioned out a plan covering the commencement of the pilot scheme of the programme. The plan involves the establishment of six standard institution-based technology incubation centres in six universities to be named by the NUC for the pilot scheme.
She explained that the proposed Technology Incubation curriculum in the institutions is an essential component of entrepreneurship education.
Okojie, in his remarks, welcomed the signing of the MoU, describing entrepreneurial studies as vital in the Nigerian university system to equip graduates with the necessary skills they require to face the challenges of the current technological age, observing that Nigerian universities had responsibilities to teach, conduct research and contribute ideas to boost community development. He commended the NBTI for being proactive on the collaboration initiative.