Indian Council for Cultural Studies (ICCR) and Nigeria's Lagos Business School have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to establish a rotating chair in the institution here to inculcate Indian management studies to students here.
The MoU to establish the co-chair to inculcate Indian Management Studies to Nigerian students was signed on behalf of ICCR by Indian High Commissioner Mahesh Sachdev and by Enase Okonedo, Dean of the Lagos Business School, also known as Pan African University.
"It is a momentous MOU that would facilitate the framework for Indian academic interest at the institution. The two countries have long collaborated on academics," Sachdev said after signing the agreement yesterday.
Okonedo said the arrangement involves the invitation of Indian professors to impart their knowledge to Nigerian students. Sachdev recalled India's highly visible presence in Nigerian academic circle in the 1960s and 1970s when a large number of Indian professors taught in Nigerian universities. "As the local capacity grew, their presence was no longer necessary," he said.
The high commissioner pointed out that a new phenomenon recently substituted the withdrawal of those professors as some information technology institutes like Aptech and NIIT came to train the youth for viable trade.
According to Sachdev, the institutions, through franchising have trained nearly 50,000 young men and women in Nigeria. He said, "At a different level, five Nigerian presidents have had their trainings in India. At one level, it re-establishes those links and at another, we break new grounds."
He said this is the first of such arrangement with a Nigeria institution and that it was carefully chosen because of its good track record.