BY CHIKA OTUCHIKERE, ABUJA
The People’s Republic of China, Province of Fujian, has entered into a pact with the Kano State Government to industrialise the state.
The pact was sealed Tuesday, with a Letter of Intent signed by both parties, during a China- Nigeria Business Dialogue themed: “Seeking Common Cooperation and Development Through Inter–party Exchanges “ hosted by the Chinese Embassy in Abuja.
The collaboration would ensure that Kano’s agriculture sector would be mechanised and the animal husbandry modernised through
Ranching is expected to put an end to the lingering clashes between farmers and herdsmen in the state and Nigeria as well as have an impact on the insecurity caused by banditry and kidnapping.
The dialogue drew a large entourage from Kano State, led by Governor Alhaji Abdullahi Ganduje.
There were also participants at the ministerial level of officials from the International Development Department of the Central Working Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), Nigeria’s ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) National Working Committee and the Fujian Province of China.
The Ambassador of China to Nigeria, Cui Jianchun, in an interaction with newsmen said the partnership is to prioritize areas of trade and investment and to strengthen the ties with Nigeria, especially at sub-national levels of government.
“I think we can prioritize areas, for example the Fujian province and Kano state, they can work together from the state level to and other levels. I think this is a very innovative way to expedite and accelerate development,” he said, noting that China intends to replicate the programme in all other states of Nigeria.
Kano state Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje said the idea behind the partnership between political parties is 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.
“So, Kano State is in good relationship with the Fujian province in China. Kano is the commercial nerve center of northern Nigeria and also a commercial nerve center 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,” he said.
“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.