The Federal Government of Nigeria has welcomed 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.
The government also welcomed the recent election of a Nigerian, Dr. Omoniyi Ibietan, as the Secretary-General of the African Public Relations Association (APRA).
Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris who conveyed the Federal Government’s position in a statement noted that Public Relations has now been designated as a cadre in the Federal Civil Service, effective 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 NIPR played a critical role in championing this and deserves commendation,” the minister said.
Idris assured that Nigeria will continue to lead in strengthening and elevating public relations practice at home and across Africa, noting that this position was recently commended by the President of the African Public Relations Association, Mr. Arik Karani.
“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 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,” Idris quoted Karani as saying.
The Information Minister 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.