By Olukayode Babalola

Amb. Paulo Santos, Portugal’s Ambassador to Nigeria, has pledged to explore and propose more opportunities to the Portuguese government for Nigerian students interested in studying in Portugal.

Santos stated this at the 6th edition of the Nasarawa State University Keffi (NSUK) Special Lecture Series held in Keffi Local Government Area of the state on Wednesday.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Santos delivered the lecture on the topic: “Educational opportunities within the framework of Portugal-Nigeria bilateral relations”.

According to him, Nigerian students constitute a large contingent of students from Africa who seek admissions to study in Portuguese universities.

This, he said, made it necessary to find more space, support and opportunities for them to study in Portugal.

The envoy explained that doing so would strengthen the Portugal-Nigeria bilateral relations.

Santos said that was notwithstanding the fact that most of Portugal’s resource support for Africa were traditionally focused on the five Portuguese speaking African countries.

He named the countries as Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique and Sao Tome and Principe.

“Our resources are limited and this means these five countries usually take most of the resources that we have, both financial and human resources.

“Having said this, my task, therefore, is to convince my authorities that, though still concentrating on those five Portuguese speaking countries, we need to find space also for non-speaking Portuguese African countries including Nigeria,” he said.

The envoy said that the advocacy was necessitated by the growing number of Nigerian students who indicate interest to study in Portugal annually.

He said that it was also necessitated by the healthy economic relationship that already existed between Portugal and Nigeria.

“We have achieved a lot over the years, including economic. Most of the energy that Portugal consumes comes from Nigeria. Nigeria is by far our supplier of energy and this includes oil and gas.

“Also, we are not one of the biggest European countries. We are a mid size country but despite that we have many universities working with Africa, especially Nigeria. So, we get more students than you would imagine.

“Few weeks ago, Nigerian students bagged scholarships to study in Europe. I was surprised to see that the group going to Portugal was the second biggest after France. This means there is interest in our country and the kind of studies that we have there,” he said.

He added that the huge interest from Nigerian students to study in Portugal made the Portuguese embassy in Nigeria proud and eager to advocate for offering more support and space for Nigerian students.

“We have hundreds of Nigerians every year going to Portugal. Some of them are self- sponsored. There is always a minimum of 300 to 400 new students going to Portugal,” he said.

He lauded the Nasarawa State University’s developmental strides and pledged to work closely with the university to achieve mutually beneficial goals.

Prof. Sa’adatu Liman, Vice Chancellor of the university, appreciated the ambassador for accepting to be the speaker of the university’s 6th special lecture.

Liman said that the ambassador’s leadership and commitment to fostering relationship between Nigeria and Portugal made him the best choice to speak on the topic.

She added that the lecture presented a significant opportunity for the university to explore the vast potentials for collaboration, partnerships and exchanges in education, research and culture between Nigeria and Portugal.

“The bilateral relations between us has grown significantly that it is desirable and most expedient for the two countries to leverage this partnership and collaboration to enhance educational opportunities for driving growth and development,” she said. (NAN)(www.nannews.ng)

Edited by Mark Longyen