The Directorate of Technical Cooperation in Africa (DTCA) says it has secured a 74,000 euro (N29.7 million) grant for Tailor-Made-Training (TMT) capacity building for staff of the agency from the Netherlands Government.

The Acting Director-General, Mr Sanda Isah, who disclosed this an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), said the grant came through the Netherlands Fellowship Programme (NFP).

Isah said the grant secured by the DTCA was in tandem with Next Level Agenda of President Muhammadu Buhari philosophy of security, especially as it affected Lake Chad Basin and deradicalisation of the Northeast.

He said that 25 staff of the DTCA who were technical officers and trainers, had been carefully selected by the Netherlands government to benefit from the TMT.

“The first batch of 10 participants from the DTCA have been selected to embark on this training in Lagos, starting from July 29 to Aug. 3. The second batch of 15 participants will be trained from Aug. 5 to Aug. 10,” he said.

Isah said that the training would be carried out by international resource persons from the Netherlands to impact knowledge on participants.

He said that the DTCA would explore ways of making the TMT an annual grant through signing an MOU with the Netherlands government.

He said that there was a current realignment of the DTCA to focus on leveraging on funds from international development partners for capacity building of staff to international best practices.

He however commended the Netherlands government for finding the DTCA worthy of spending the funds to train its staff.

Mr Kevin Yilme, the Assistant Director, Programme Management, DTCA said that the trained staff would use their skills to train and provide assistance to subsistence fishermen, farmers, local organisations and farmers unions in the Lake Chad Basin.

“This will increase productivity, income and ensure food security,” he said.

Yilme said that the training would partly eliminate constraints of the Lake Chad Basin, with a view to increasing the likelihood of the 30 million inhabitants around the lake and arrest the tide of insurgency in the area.

The DTCA, under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, aims to enhance Africa’s development by creating an enabling environment and opportunity for Nigerian professionals and African descent to invest their immense intellect, expertise and skills in the economies of Africa.

(NAN).