United States Consulate General in Lagos has awarded a $125,000 grant to support the conservation, digital documentation and physical preservation of the historic Lejja iron-smelting site in Enugu State, in what was described as part of Nigeria-US cooperation aimed at protecting the country’s cultural heritage.
The grant, awarded under the US Ambassador’s Fund for Cultural Preservation, will be implemented by the Centre for Memories, Enugu, through the Nchekwaba project, which will combine archaeological conservation with three-dimensional digital documentation, preservation of the site and documentation of endangered oral histories.
The project was formally launched on Thursday at the National Museum in Onikan, Lagos, with the United States Consul General, Brandon Hudspeth; Deputy Governor of Enugu State, Ifeanyi Ossai; representatives of the Federal Ministry of Art, Culture, Tourism and Creative Economy, National Commission for Museums and Monuments, Smithsonian Institution and other cultural heritage organisations in attendance.
Ossai, who represented Governor Peter Mbah, described the grant as a welcome partnership which the state was proud to support, stressing that the preservation of Lejja would require sustained collaboration between government, heritage institutions and the community.
