The Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) has started drive to seal a working relationship with the perspicuous Ghana based Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC), in Accra.
Established in 1998, the international centre provides training and research in peacekeeping and is headed by Maj-Gen Clayton Yaache when it formally began operations in 2002. KAIPTC commenced its first full annual training and education cycle in March 2004, and has since expanded its curriculum to over twenty different courses.
The new partnership is coming on the heels of a working visit by a delegation of the centre to the headquarters of NPA at Marina, Lagos.
Though details of the meeting were not made public at the end of the visit, Business Hilights gathered from one of the visiting officials that the KAIPTC centre has a number set broad objectives which include but not limited to; To provide mission oriented training at the operational level in Peace Operations for selected participants prior to deployment into areas of operation; To provide the operational focus that will link the basic tactical Peace Operations training provided at Koulikoro in Mali under French sponsorship with the high level strategic training provided at the War College in Nigeria.; and to improve the ability of participants to operate in multinational environments and to cooperate with contingents from other countries.
“Others are to keep participants abreast of the nature and complexities of contemporary interstate and intrastate conflicts, and to conduct research into the various facets of peace operations.
On current international ties, the official revealed that the KAIPTC is engaged in partnerships with several research and training facilities in the world, including Canada’s Pearson Peacekeeping Centre.
“In addition to support from its host country, Ghana, the KAIPTC has benefited from assistance from Canada, Denmark, the European Union, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
