By Bash M Bash
Kano
Kano and the French government have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the training of indigenes on technical education and skill acquisition.
The scheme is aimed at providing employment for the teeming youths, in the state, the state governor, Abdulalahi Umar Ganduje, has said, even as he also promised to reopen the popular Alliance Francoise earlier shut due to security challenges.
Ganduje, who gave the assurance when he received the French Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Denys Gauer, in his office, told the envoy that priority attention would be given to the teaching of French language in public schools in the state.
Besides the existence of French businesses and cultural heritage, Kano also play host to several expatriates, including Chinese, Lebanese, Turkish, Indians and foreign communities with huge estates and investment.
While soliciting establishment of bilingual center for teaching and learning of French language, Ganduje reminded the French Ambassador that Kano remains a foremost commercial center in West Africa.
Ganduje said his government was working tirelessly to improve the security to guarantee safety of the foreigners. French Ambassador to Nigeria, Gauer said his country was willing to register its present in Northern Nigeria, especially Kano, in view of its strategic position in Nigeria.
He said plans have reached advanced stage to establish French school in Kano, while the existing French cultural center, Alliance Francoise, earlier closed would be reinvigorated.
Ambassador Gauer stated that his government would explore more ways of strengthening relations with the government and people of Kano, through the provision of educational scholarships to students and other economic investments in the state.
In a related development, Ganduje, who played host to Turkish entrepreneurs revealed plans to inaugurate investment promotion agency to drive local and foreign investment and economic growth in Kano.
He urged the Turkish business community to take advantage of the huge economic potentials readily available in the state. Leader of the delegates and member of the board of Turkish Exporters Assembly, Ahmet Gullet, said they were in Kano on a return visit, after hosting a delegation of businessmen, who visited Turkey from Kano last January.
He said the visit would open up windows of greater bilateral relations with Kano, in view of its huge population and economicpotentials as well as its position as a historical commercial city.
Nigeria and Turkey enjoy good trade relations and the volume of the bilateral trade stood at over N206 billion in 2013, according to statistics obtained from the Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture.