The Federal Government hopes to use Lagos and Onne ports as hubs for grain donations from Ukraine to Nigeria.
This is even as the Government of Ukraine has expressed its readiness to establish grain hubs in Nigeria and other African countries as it donated about 25,000 tonnes of grains to Nigeria to boost bilateral ties.
Ukrainian Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food, Mr Mykola Solskyi, made this known on Tuesday in Abuja when he led a delegation that met with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Geoffrey Onyeama.
Solskyi said that the grains from Ukraine would arrive in Nigeria in February under the initiative called ‘Grains from Ukraine’.
He said that despite the war with Russia, the Ukrainian food industry wanted to have closer relations with Nigeria, adding “we are very thankful to you that your country is ready to develop the relations“.
“Despite all the events going on in the world our countries are ready to develop this cooperation.
“The Ukrainian government and Ukrainian president are ready to pay a lot of attention to this development. We want to have regular contacts every year not only by our agriculture ministers but other ministers as well.
“Development of such hubs will make it possible to bring in high quality grains into your country and it will influence prices positively.
“Ukraine intends to develop two or three hubs in Africa and taking into consideration the capacity of your country, the grain hub in your country is priority number one. If we implement it well, it would be a practical step towards our business relations reaching a new level,” Solskyi said.
Onyeama, who empathised with Ukraine over its ongoing war with Russia, also lauded it for the grain donation, pointing out that the gesture was coming even when the country was still at war.
He thanked Ukraine for extending its support to Nigeria and other African countries despite the current situation in that country.
“Notwithstanding the situation in which your country finds itself, you are able to extend a hand of friendship not just to Nigeria but to other African countries. This demonstrates superhuman courage and we really admire your generosity and we thank you for this support,” Onyeama said.
Onyeama noted that Nigeria had long standing relations with Ukraine, lamenting that some of the victims of the war in Ukraine were the large number of Nigerian students, whose studies have been disrupted by the war.
“You have built up real specialisation in many disciplines and Nigerian students are the beneficiaries. We can continue to strengthen relations between our two countries and our two peoples.
“We will do our best at the multilateral level to bring the war to a very quick end,” Onyeama said.
Also speaking during the meeting, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Mohammad Abubakar, said that Nigeria was willing and ready to provide the appropriate ports for the grain hub.
“We appreciate and commend you that despite the war you still found time to extend a gesture of friendship to Nigeria and also donated grains.
“I can assure you that the relations with Ukraine will improve.
“We have been having businesses with Ukraine, especially in the agriculture sector and I can say that over 30 per cent of our agricultural businesses are with Ukraine particularly in the area of wheat, fertilizer and other grains. This I can assure you will continue to improve our relations,” he said.
Fielding questions later, Abubakar said the purpose of the grain hubs was to have a centre where Ukraine would be bringing grains and we would be helping other African countries.
He said the hubs would be useful in emergency situations and could also be used to donate grains to other countries.
“We are looking at the Lagos Port and also the Onne Port in Rivers. The grains coming from Ukraine will increase the amount of grains here and the hub will eventually become a business hub with other African countries and beyond and it will help to stabilise the price,” he added.
The minister said that Ukraine had the technology and know-how to help Nigeria in wheat production, stressing that capacity building would be part of the relations which would produce a win-win situation.
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