TheCable

Cui Jianchun, Chinese envoy to Nigeria, says his country has pledged to partner with the relevant authorities in revamping Nigeria’s agricultural and industrial sectors.

The envoy said this in an interview with journalists in Abuja after his country signed a letter of intent with Nigeria.

Jianchun also spoke on the sidelines of the China-Nigeria business dialogue with ministerial-level officials, and representatives of political parties from both countries.

The business dialogue was themed; ‘Seeking Common Cooperation and Development Through Inter-party Exchanges’.

He said China would prioritise investments in the agricultural and industrial sectors, adding that the partnership would commence with the Kano state government.

According to him, China sought to prioritise areas of trade and investment and to strengthen ties with Nigeria at all levels of government.

“I think we can prioritise areas, for example, the Fujian province and Kano state, they can work together from the state level to other levels. I think this is a very innovative way to expedite and accelerate development,” Jianchun said.

“China will replicate the programme in all other states of Nigeria,” he said.

On his part, Abdullahi Ganduje, Kano state governor, explained that the idea behind the partnership between political parties was to ensure entrepreneurship in government.

“Political party is the platform for recruiting government officials in elective and appointive positions to provide assistance to the people who voted for the politicians,” he said.

“So, Kano state is in good relationship with the Fujian province in China. Kano is the commercial nerve centre of northern Nigeria and also a commercial nerve centre of some West African countries and Fujian is a commercial province in China.

“So, the agreement that we have signed will see us through different areas.

“Kano is an agricultural state in Nigeria, we produce a lot of grains. Kano has the largest grain market in West Africa and you find a lot of Chinese in the commercial activities in that market.

“So, you can see that we need a lot of processing in order to convert those grains into finished products. We require collaboration in terms of machinery and in terms of personnel manpower for production.

“Another area is that of hides and skin. Kano has the highest number of finished products for hides and skin because we get a lot from Niger and Chad, therefore, we have a number of tanneries. But we export the hides and skin instead of converting it to finished products.

“So, we need collaboration with Fujian Province whereby the hides and skin can be converted into finished products for exports and for consumption.”

Ganduje said that another important area of collaboration was ranching, especially in producing grass for cattle.

According to him, this would reduce the migration of herdsmen from one state to another and reduce the conflict between herdsmen and farmers.

“We are discussing with them on how to produce grasses that are good for cattle so that we can domesticate our herdsmen and put them in one place to reduce the moving from one place to another,” he said.

The governor also disclosed that part of the agreement was to revamp the textile industry in Kano.

He said the Chinese could help in providing the needed investment in that sector.