NIPR, GAPRCM to establish degree-awarding academy in Nigeria

The Nigeria Institute of Public Relations, NIPR, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding, MoU, with the Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communication Management, GAPRCM, to establish a degree-awarding academy for public relations practice in the country.

This was disclosed in a statement signed by the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, and made available to Daily Intel Newspaper on Sunday.

The minister, who vowed that Nigeria would continue to play a leading role in strengthening and elevating public relations practice both in the country and and across Africa, used the medium to express delight in the recent election of a Nigerian, Dr Omoniyi Ibietan, as the Secretary-General of the African Public Relations Association, APRA.

According to him, “Recently, when I received the President of the African Public Relations Association, Mr Arik Karani, he commended Nigeria in this regard.

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

“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).’ NIPR played a critical role in championing this and deserve commendation.”

Idris noted that Nigeria for a long time, was the only country in Africa with a law that professionalises public relations.

“Nigeria was, for the longest time, the only country in Africa that had a law that professionalised 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 professionalising public relations is at the second reading in parliament,” he said.

The minister, therefore, assured that the administration of President Bola Tinubu would continue to provide an enabling environment for everybody within Nigeria’s communications industry to thrive.