Nigeria is weeks away from receiving its first batch of grain imports from Ukraine.
During the week, Nigeria signed the “Grains from Ukraine” project, which is slated to take effect in February and would see Nigeria receiving grain imports from the war torn eastern European country Ukraine.
According to Nairametrics, a news publication in Nigeria, this information was disclosed by “the Ukrainian Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food, Mykola Solskyi, who led a delegation to Nigeria’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, and his Agriculture and Rural Development counterpart, Mohammad Abubakar, in Abuja.”
The rationale behind the decision is to establish a trade-partnership with Nigeria, subsequently initiating a grain hub in all of Africa, with Nigeria having been its launching pad.
“Development of such hubs will make it possible to bring in high-quality grains into your country and it will influence prices in your country 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 businesses reaching a new level,” the minister stated.
“Despite the war with Russia, the Ukrainian food industry wants to have closer relations with Nigeria and we are very thankful to you that your country is ready to develop these relations.” He added.
“Despite all the events going on in the world, our countries are ready to develop this cooperation. The Ukrainian government and the 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.” He concluded.
Ukraine also set the record straight, that this is not a humanitarian aid but a trade-partnership.
In light of the deal the Nigerian minister for Agriculture and Rural Development, Mohammed Abubakar, noted that the establishment of grain hubs in the country are already in effect.
“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 business with Ukraine, especially in the agriculture sector and I can say that over 30% of our agricultural businesses are with Ukraine, especially in the area of wheat, fertilizer and other grains. And this I can assure you will continue to improve our relationship,” the minister said.