Earlier this week, Nigeria and Ukraine signed the “Grains from Ukraine” project which will be implemented by February and involves grains arriving in Nigeria from Ukraine.
This 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.
Nigeria is priority number one: According to Solskyi, Ukraine wants to establish grain hubs in Africa and Nigeria is its first country of interest. That’s because Ukraine wants closer relations with Nigeria. He said:
- “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.
- “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.
- “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.”
Nigeria promises cooperation: The Minister for Agriculture and Rural Development, Mohammed Abubakar, promised the set-up of ports for Ukraine’s grain hubs in the country. He said:
“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.”
This is not humanitarian aid: As Solskyi said earlier, the initiative is a business move and an intent to develop stronger relations with Nigeria. However, information from World Grain (WG) points to the possibility that the move is humanitarian. According to WG, Ukraine continues to supply food to countries in need despite its ongoing war with Russia. It stated:
- “As part of the Grain from Ukraine program, partner countries purchase Ukrainian-produced grain and send it to the countries facing a humanitarian crisis. The program is implemented in partnership with the United Nations World Food Programme.”
For the record: In November 2022, Kabir Ibrahim, the National President of the All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN) condemned food aid earmarked for Nigeria at the time. His reaction came after it was announced in 2022, that Ukraine would send 125,000 metric tons of grains to Nigeria, Sudan, Kenya, and Yemen as humanitarian aid. Kabir called it shameful that a war-torn country would offer food aid to Nigeria.
- Meanwhile, the World Bank in its January 2023 Global Economic Prospects report says that growth in Nigeria’s agricultural sector is expected to soften because of the damage from the 2022 floods.
