British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Mr Paul Arkwright, on Sunday said his home government would partner Cross River University of Technology (CRUTECH) to develop creative art.
Arkwright, who stated this in Calabar after a facility visit to CRUTECH’s Craft Department, said thast the high embassy would get some British universities experienced in arts and crafts to partner the university.
He said, “I met two persons that are in CRUTECH that have won scholarship and have studied in the UK; so, that is already happening, when you talk about scholarship, they have benefited from that. But, we are ready to look at other partnerships which we can bring in British universities who got experience in the arts, who can partner CRUTECH and see what they can offer.
We have such range of opportunities here which we can explore. We will do our best; there are beautiful talents in CRUTECH. Let’s see what we can do to develop those talents.”
The high commissioner said that he was pleased with the willingness of its partners in the state in developing youths in entrepreneurship in partnership with the British Council.
“It is quite early but what we have seen is the willingness of our partners here. They include the governor, the private sector and the university through the British Council and a number of young artists and entrepreneurs. This is a very promising beginning,” he said.
He promised to return after a year to access those that had received training on event management and other entrepreneurship skills and see how they carried on with their own companies.
He said that the British High Commission would also look at the option of bringing investments from Britain to the state.
“Again, this is my first visit here so this is something that we need to consider. We are looking at British companies that might want to come and invest. I mentioned a couple to the governor. We have agreed that we will explore those opportunities.
Again there are also British companies that are already active here. We like more British companies to come here.
On infrastructure, we have relevant expertise and we want to apply those expertise in people here so they can partner the governor,’’ Arkwright said.
(NAN)
