Nigeria and Kazakhstan are poised to enhance their bilateral relations through the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding focused on cooperation in agriculture, trade, and information technology.
A 30-member delegation from Kazakhstan, led by Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Alibek Kuantyrov, is currently in Nigeria to facilitate this partnership.
The Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi, played a pivotal role in organizing a conference that brought together key public and private sector stakeholders from both nations.
Speaking at the conference, the Minister of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy, Dr. Bosun Tijani,
highlighted Nigeria’s strategic blueprint with six pillars as key areas for collaboration with Kazakhstan.
He emphasized opportunities in knowledge exchange, capacity building, and talent development, particularly in artificial intelligence, as Nigeria recently completed its national AI strategy.
Representing the Minister, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Faruk Yabo, said, “In particular, pillar number one speaks about knowledge, capacity building and talents. I’m aware that Kazakhstan is quite advanced in terms of its knowledge base in ICT. So this is a big area that we can partner.
“We already have the world’s largest capacity-building initiative that we are running, which is the three million technical talents by 2027. This is intended to train Nigerians in technical talent so that at least 1.5 million of them will be able to work in Europe and the remaining ones could be here.”
He added that both countries were exploring cooperation in artificial intelligence, noting that Nigeria had recently completed drafting its national AI strategy.
He emphasized the need for cooperation in developing digital infrastructure.
In his remark, the Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Senator Abubakar, Kyari highlighted the significant progress made in Nigeria’s agriculture sector under the current administration and emphasized the potential for collaboration with Kazakhstan in various areas of the industry.
Kyari said, “We’re meeting with them on Tuesday at 2 o’clock, and we will talk more and elaborately on some of the opportunities that exist between Nigeria and Kazakhstan in terms of the agricultural space.
“We are not asking only for them to come and invest. We are also asking for us to partner with them. What is it that they need? We have products that we have in abundance here.”
The Kazakhstan head of delegation, Alibek Kuantyrov, noted that this is Kazakhstan’s first official delegation to Nigeria and emphasized that the large youth populations in both countries create opportunities for collaboration.
“Our main trajectory is economic development, and we are the largest economy in Central Asia. So the same as Nigeria, Nigeria is a leader in the African continent.
“We see Nigeria as a very important partner and also the channel to go through the whole continent, and I think we can work together in terms of the transit of goods, trade and also making pure mutual investment in the field of minerals.
“We’re also an ICT and AI nation and also a FinTech nation, the sectors that are being developed in Nigeria and now we have managed and come to a conclusion that we can also open some FinTech and banking companies in the Nigerian markets.”
He stated that both countries could engage in exchanges of ICT products and students, noting that Kazakhstan aims to train at least 1 million IT specialists.
Meanwhile, the Ooni of Ife, who convened the meeting, praised President Bola Tinubu for his proactive role in making the business conference possible.
He stated that the event was a continuation of discussions initiated during the January meeting between the presidents of both countries in Abu Dhabi.
