Envoy hails Russia for widening opportunities for African students

Amb. Abdullahi Shehu, Nigerian Ambassador to the Russian Federation has commended Russian government for granting opportunities for African students.

Shehu gave the commendation in an interview on Tuesday in Moscow, Russia.

Describing the development as one of the significant gains of Russia-Africa Economic Summit, he said that it would further deepen the relationship between Russia and African countries.

It was recall that Russian President, Vladimir Putin said that Russia’s teacher training colleges and universities plan to admit more students from African countries.

Putin said this at the plenary session of the 2nd Russia-Africa Economic and Humanitarian Forum held on July 27 and July 28 at the Expoforum venue in St. Petersburg.

“A project was launched in 28 African countries for setting up open education for training instructors and teachers for pre-school establishments, elementary and secondary schools.

“Toward this end, we are planning to significantly increase the enrolment of African students in Russian pedagogical institutions of higher learning,” the Russian president said.

Reflecting on the first Russia-Africa Economic Summit in 2019, Shehu said that Russia made some gains in spite of the coronavirus pandemic and crisis between Russia and Ukraine.

“From the first summit in 2019 to now, the trade volume between Russia and Africa increased by about 60 per cent standing out about 18 billion dollars. We can say this is a significant progress.

“Specifically, after the 2019 summit, the coronavirus pandemic set in, which made it difficult if not impossible to implement most of the actions envisage in the political declaration that was issued.

“As soon as the coronavirus was going, this crisis between Russia and Ukraine also set in, which also became a major setback.

“Even if not for relations with Africa, but for the fact that the comprehensive sanctions were imposed on Russia was a major setback in the realization of the objectives of the summit.”

According to him, to some extent we can say some significant gains have been recorded.

“The other area of gain, I can tell you is where President Putin indicated that at the moment there are about 35,000 African students studying in Russia under the Russian bilateral scholarship with African countries.

“And he promised that by next year they are going to increase the number of scholars from Africa,’’ Shehu said.