Turkish Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr Hakan Çakil, has said that Turkey is set to enhance its relations with Nigeria in the education, agriculture and security sectors.
Çakil said this on the sideline of a dinner to mark the 93rd anniversary of the founding of Turkey in Abuja at the weekend.
The envoy said that the Turkish Government was set to increase the number of scholarships awarded to Nigerian students.
“ When I first came here, I realised that the Turkish Government has not been allocating official scholarships to Nigerian students.
“I started the project and this year we provided 29 official Turkish Government scholarships to Nigerian students.
“The number is not enough. I hope for the next academic year the number will be doubled.
“Every year we will increase the number of the Turkish Government’s official scholarships to Nigerian students because their academic performance is very good.”
The ambassador also said that Turkish Government was also exploring ways to share experiences with Nigeria in agriculture in line with the economic diversification plan of the present administration.
He described the agriculture sector as a potential one and expressed the willingness of the Turkish Government to share its expertise with Nigeria.
“We have shortage of water in Turkey so we are developing technologies to use less water and to have much more harvest.
“We know all the techniques and are ready share all of the know-how with Nigeria. Soon a Turkish technical delegation from Turkish Ministry of Agriculture will come to Nigeria.
“They will make a field search with their Nigerian counterparts and discuss ways of developing the relations in the agriculture sector; I hope they will draw some projects for increasing Nigeria’s agriculture capacity,” he said.
Çakil further said that in the area of defence and security, exchange visits are planned between the military of both countries to boost relations in the area of security.
“Turkey has been producing 60 per cent of its defence products, so we can share our expertise and know-how with Nigeria
“We can sell to Nigeria what it needs to boost its security capacity,” he added
