Nigeria Has The Capacity To Become Hub For Africa’s Space Development – Ukrainian Envoy

Ukraine’s Ambassador to Nigeria, Dr. Valerii Alesandruk says Nigeria has the potential to become a hub for Africa in the area of space development if her government is determined to do so.

Alesandruk, who made the observation while speaking with journalists in Abuja on Tuesday said Nigeria was not just  a big country on the African continent but also possesses a lot of potential and great minds.

He urged the country to endeavour to establish itself in space development, adding that with Ukraine’s vast expertise in this area, the country was ready to collaborate and partner with Nigeria.

His words: “Ukraine is very good at space technology and Nigeria is a big country in the continent that needs to develop its space sector.

“Nigeria needs to establish itself and launch more into the space and become hub for Africa in space development.”

The ambassador disclosed that apart from space technology, his country remains desirous of deepening military cooperation with Nigeria in order to help her overcome her security challenges.

While commending Nigerians currently studying in various higher institutions in Ukraine, the envoy noted that out of the 3,700 Nigerian travellers issued visas in the last two years, 2,014 were students.

“In 2017 we issued 1,642 visas to Nigerians going to Ukraine. Among these we have 821 visas for students that wanted to study in the Ukraine. In the last ten months of 2018 we have already issued 2,028 visas to Nigerians and among them we have 1,193 student visas.

“Currently we have more than 4000 Nigerians studying various courses in Ukraine. This is good for our cooperation as young people from Nigeria go to Ukraine to study medicine, ICT high tech among others”, the ambassador added.