Information Minister hails NIPR, GAPRCM MoU on Public Relations degree awarding academy

 

ABUJA, Nigeria – The Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mr. Mohammed Idris has welcomed the Memorandum of Understanding, MoU signed by the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations, NIPR and the Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communications Management, GAPRCM to set up a Public Relations degree awarding academy in Nigeria for PR practice.

“I welcome the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed between the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations and the Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communication Management, to establish a degree-awarding academy for public relations practice in Nigeria”, he said.

The Minister equally welcomed the recent election of a Nigerian, Dr. Omoniyi Ibietan, as the Secretary-General of the African Public Relations Association (APRA).

“Also worthy of note is the fact that Public Relations (PR) has now been designated as a cadre in the Federal Civil Service, with effect from December 2023.

“The Information Officer Cadre has been re-designated to ‘Information and Public Relations Officer Cadre’, and the Executive Cadre to ‘Executive Officer (Information and Public Relations)”, the Minister added.

According to him, the NIPR played a critical role in championing this, and deserves commendation.

He said Nigeria will continue to play a leading role in strengthening and elevating public relations practice at home and across Africa.

He alluded to recent visit of the President of the African Public Relations Association, Mr. Arik Karani, to his office, stressing that the APRA President commended Nigeria in this regard.

He said, “[Nigeria] was, for the longest time, the only country in Africa that had a law that professionalized public relations.

“It was Nigeria that started it on the continent, and only last year did Zambia come out with its own law. So now we have two countries on the continent, and only now in Kenya, the bill for professionalizing public relations is at the second reading in Parliament.”

He assured that the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu will continue to provide the enabling environment for everybody within Nigeria’s communications industry to thrive.