Minister of Education Dr Sam Egwu said Federal Government is determined to improve the reading habit amongst Nigerians at all levels and the development of technical education to ensure the provision of middle-level manpower that will drive national development.

The minister stated this at the commissioning of the Imo State branch of the Prototype Building of the National Library.

The minister expressed satisfaction with the efforts of the National Library of Nigeria, and called on state governments to partner with the National Library to provide many libraries as pillars for educational development.

According to him, library is relevant at all levels of education and fits into the education roadmap designed by the Federal Ministry of Education which is presently at the implementation stage.

"The Roadmap which has a four-point agenda of access and equity, standards and quality assurance, technical and vocational education and training, and funding and resource utilisation, when fully implemented will take the education sector to a higher level," he said.

Earlier, Chairman of the National Library Board, Alhaji Zannah Mustapha said the commissioning of Imo State branch brings to 22 the number of branches of the National Library in the federation.

He said the board intends to establish branches all over the 36 states of the federation by the year 2015.

In his remarks, Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Education Rep Faruk Lawan commended the efforts of Dr Egwu in improving the education sector and pledged the support of National Assembly towards completion of all education projects.

While noting that no nation can progress without a reading culture, Rep Lawan said that the National Assembly will continue to support the building of libraries and encourage students and the society to sustain reading in order to reverse the trend of low interest in reading.