VICE president Professor Yemi Osinbajo has invited Russian farmers to get involved in agricultural cultivation in Nigeria as part of the government's ambitious programme to diversify the economy.
Over the last year, global oil prices have collapsed from a high of over $100 a barrel, forcing the Nigerian government to step up plans to diversify the economy. As part of this programme, the government is investing heavily in solid minerals and agriculture in particular, with the aim of making them major foreign exchange earners.
While receiving a Russian delegation led by its agriculture minister Alexander Tkachev, who is also the co-chair of the Nigeria-Russia Joint Commission, at State House in Abuja yesterday, Professor Osinbajo urged Russian farmers to invest in Nigeria, produce and export from here. He said that one of the reasons why Nigeria needed to reduce food imports was because it was a significant drain on dwindling foreign exchange.
Professor Osinbajo said: “We are just six hours away from Europe by air. Vegetables, flour can be exported to Europe from here.
“Oil prices have gone down tremendously and yet large amounts of foreign exchange are used to purchase food abroad when we have large arable land for agriculture. It won’t make sense, if you don’t use the land."
In response, Mr Tkachev expressed his country’s willingness to enhance existing trade relations with Nigeria. He said the Nigeria-Russia trade volume as of at the end of 2015 exceeded $300m but added that there is the potential for improvement in the years ahead.
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