The Nigerian Government has expressed its commitment to improving diplomatic relations with Canada, in a bid to boost the fight against insecurity.
This was disclosed by Nigeria’s Minister of Defence, Maj Gen Bashir Salihi Magashi (rtd), in a meeting with the Canadian High Commissioner to Nigeria, Nicolas Simard, at the Defence Headquarters in Abuja, on Friday.
The Defence Minister added that Nigeria’s relationship with the North American nation progressively and sustainably culminated into the formation a bi-national commission in April 2012 which was beneficial to both countries.
He added that the FG was seeking Canada’s support to bring an end to extremism and insurgency in Nigeria, adding that Nigeria needed Canada’s assistance in driving national aspirations. He also requested the transfer of technology from Canada to boost the capabilities of the Defence Industrial Corporation of Nigeria (DICON) towards looking inward for the productions of more sophisticated military weapons and hardware.
What you should know
Nairametrics reported last month that Mrs Zainab Ahmed, Nigeria’s Finance Minister, said Nigeria planned to borrow the sum of $1.76 billion from the domestic markets to fund the fight against insecurity.
Meanwhile, Global Maritime Insurers say Nigeria’s coastal waters, which recorded the highest piracy rates in 2020, remains the riskiest to insure despite efforts by the FG to deal with the growing piracy with schemes like the Deep Blue Project.