The Ukrainian Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food, Mykola Solskyi has stressed the country’s commitment to establishing grain hubs in Nigeria.
The minister said developing such a hub will make it possible to bring high-quality grains to Nigeria which would influence positively the prices in the country.
He made this known during a bilateral meeting between the Ukrainian Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food, Mykola Solskyi, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama in Abuja on Wednesday.
According to him, next month, grains from Ukraine would be arriving in Nigeria under the initiative called ‘Grain from Ukraine.’
Solskyi noted that sensing the capacity and size of Nigeria, a grain hub in the country is a priority number one and if both countries manage to implement it, it would be a practical step towards business, reaching a new level.
He maintained that for Ukraine, it is very important to develop healthy relations which have been created between Nigerian and Ukrainian businesses in the past ten years.
He said despite the war, the Ukrainian food industry wants to have more closer relations with Nigeria.
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He explained that two days ago, Ukraine had already negotiated with Dakar and, Senegal, and is happy that Nigeria is ready to consider such possibility in a port in Nigeria.
“We are very thankful to you that your country is ready to develop this relations.
“I think that despite all the events going on in the world, our countries are fully ready to develop these cooperation.
“We want to have regular contact every year on the level of ministers, not only of Ministers of Agriculture, but other ministers as well.
“President of Ukraine supports this idea and Ukraine intends to develop hubs in two or three ports in West Africa,” Solskyi said.
In his address, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Mohammad Abubakar affirmed that 30 percent or more of Nigeria agricultural business are with Ukraine in the area of wheat, fertiliser and other grains.
He opined that the Lagos and Onne Port in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, are being considered as the proposed hubs and assured the relationship between Nigeria and Ukraine will only improve, especially, in the agricultural sector.
Abubakar expressed Nigeria government appreciation to the Government of Ukraine, saying, despite the ongoing war in the country, it still found time to extend the gesture to Nigeria.
Also speaking, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama noted that the hand of friendship reached out by Ukrainian, has demonstrates a super human courage and generosity despite fighting of war.
He thanked Ukraine government said Nigeria cannot thank Ukraine for the hand of friendship and support , not just Nigeria, but other African countries.
“Nigeria has had long-standing, close relations with Ukraine, one of the victims of the war in Ukraine has been a large number of Nigerian students whom Ukraine had been educating in many important fields and disciplines” he said.
