Nigerian Government on Saturday held bilateral discussions with Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) on investments, power, infrastructure and some pipeline projects.
According to Mr Oluyinka Akintunde, the Special Media Adviser to the Minister of Finance, the meeting took place in Washington DC during the annual meetings of World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
The Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Finance, Mr Mahmoud Isa-Dutse, who represented the Nigerian delegates, commended JICA for strengthening the bilateral relations between Nigeria and Japan.
He said that Nigeria and the agency would continue to work harmoniously toward the realisation of ongoing infrastructure projects in the power, water, road sectors and the rehabilitation of Jebba hydro power project.
The Senior Vice President of JICA, Mr Hiroshi Kato said his Agency wants to support nutrition improvement in Nigeria and also appraise ongoing infrastructure projects and some projects in the pipeline.
“JICA is planning to implement the Technical Cooperation Project on capacity development for nutrition improvement in the Federal Capital Territory. This project has five years duration.
“The concept seeks to improve the nutrition situation of rural people in the FCT through dietary improvement and local production and consumption of nutrition rich food,” he said.
Kato recalled that the Initiative for Food and Nutrition Security in Africa (IFNA) was launched in Nairobi in August 2016 during the Sixth Tokyo International Conference on African Development.
The IFNA, he noted, was created to help African Governments accelerate the implementation of their nutrition policies, and also to ensure integration of agriculture into nutrition actions at the local level.
Kato said the agency was working towards signing a loan agreement for the power transmission project by March 2019.
He expressed the agency’s interest to implement a master plan study on National Power System Development.
He said that the plan would be a technical cooperation between Nigeria and JICA.
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