President Recef Erdoghan of Turkey has directed the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency Directorate, an agency that gives aids to ailing economies, to add Nigeria on its priority list in 2016.
Shortly after his recent one-day visit to Nigeria, President Erdoghan, through the Head, Middle East and Africa Department, TIKA, Ms. Keman Ozdemir, announced that the country had decided to join hands with the Federal Government of Nigeria to alleviate poverty in the country.
Ozdemir told The Point that the agency would soon start its operations in the most populated African nation.
Like what the country is doing in over 140 countries, she explained that the agency would provide educational infrastructure, vocational training, proper health services and aid mechanised farming across the country.
“Our target is not for specific people but the entire citizens of the country that have been deprived access to quality education and acquisition of vocational skills among other challenges. We know that the country has great population and great opportunities and we are set to assist it to explore its potentials. As long as the Memorandum of Understanding is signed, we will start building our branches across Nigeria. We have done that in Ethiopia, Cameroon, Uganda and the President has instructed us to replicate same in Nigeria,” she told The Point.
Since 1992, TIKA has provided assistance for both developing and under-developed nations by financing many projects and activities across education, health, restoration, agricultural, finance and tourism sectors.
“Today, we have 50 programme coordination offices across the world and injected about $4 billion in their economies,” she added.
