Seven takeaways from Buhari’s visit to Egypt

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In the difficult moments of our history, looking precisely at the period of Nigeria’s war of unity 1966-1971, Egypt proved to be a strategic partner from helping to train our military to support with equipment and aircraft maintenance.
In the course of his bilateral meeting with the Egyptian leader, Abdul Fattah El-Sisi, President Muahmmadu Buhari recalled that in the course of his service in the army, he too received military training in Egypt.
This 24-hour visit to to the Red Sea resort of Sharm Al-Shaikh was not just a ‘trip to Egypt’ as it has been wrongly portrayed, as if it were primarily bilateral in nature or a ritual courtesy call on President Sisi. The purpose was to promote investment and job creation in Nigeria and throughout West, Central and East Africa, together with other African leaders.
The Sharm el-Sheikh ‘Africa 2016′ conference aimed at tearing down trade barriers between North and sub-Saharan Africa – a partnership anchored by the continent’s biggest and third-biggest economies (i.e., Nigeria and Egypt) by the injection of life into a 26-nation free-trade pact signed by half the number of countries on the continent a year ago.
The organizers brought together more than 1200 delegates to Sharm el-Sheikh, included among these the eight Presidents and Prime Ministers, ministers of trade and investment, representatives of global financial institutions, businessmen and investment executives.
It is expected that this new pan-African initiative will directly benefit Nigeria in its efforts to expand and diversify jobs and exports beyond the oil industry – a core component of President Buhari’s economic vision for the country. Knocking down trade barriers within Africa will create new markets for Nigerian farmers, manufacturers and other businesses.
In his opening remarks, Egypt’s President El-Sisi said that the forum aimed at “pushing forward trade and investment in our continent …Read More

Source:: PM Newspaper