India would be glad to contribute to Nigerian Government's priorities in the field of agriculture and allied sectors, says Radha Mohan Singh
In another move to counter the growing footprint of Chinese trade interests in West African countries, the Modi government has offered Nigeria to take advantage of technology, know-how and imports from India in the agricultural sector as also from the line of credit that India had extended.
Union Agriculture minister Radha Mohan Singh on Tuesday made the offer to his Nigerian counterpart Audu Ogbeh who is on a visit to India.
"India will be only too happy to share its experience and expertise in any area of agriculture that Nigeria may identify," the minister told Ogbeh while appreciating Nigeria's new initiatives such as the 'Green Alternative' initiative which is a roadmap to make Nigeria self-sufficient in agriculture and a major exporter of agricultural products.
"For the last few years, India has been the largest trading partner of Nigeria and Nigeria is India's largest trading partner in Africa. There is tremendous potential for further expanding this volume. Nigeria may consider importing fresh grapes, pepper, wheat, maize, rice and cotton," Singh told his counterpart.
Singh conveyed his appreciation to the Nigerian agriculture minister for encouraging Indian companies to explore the opportunities in Nigerian agricultural sector both as investors as well as providers of agri-services, agricultural machinery and technological assistance.
"India and Nigeria enjoy warm and friendly relations. The two nations are large developing countries with multi-religious, multi-ethnic societies. We share values such as democracy, pluralist tolerant societies, respect for human rights and rule of law. India would be glad to contribute to Nigerian Government's priorities in the field of agriculture and allied sectors," Singh added.
Chinese presence in West Africa, including Nigeria which is the most significant country in the military alliance called Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), has been on the rise not only in terms of bilateral trade, but soft infrastructure loans to the region.
Meanwhile, in 2015 India had announced concessional loans of US $10 billion to African countries. Singh urged the Nigerian minister to take advantage of this concessional loan in the form of Lines of Credits (LoC) and training programmes for agriculture and allied sectors which India was offering. Recently Indian had increased training slots under Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) Programme from 200 to 310 annually to Nigeria, which also include short-term training programmes in agriculture and allied sectors.
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 "Radha Mohan Singh with Audu Ogbeh")
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