Reactions trail vice president Shettima’s visit to Putin

By Sola Omoniyi, Lagos

The Vice President, Sen. Kashim Shettima has restated the determination of the Tinubu administration to revive the Aluminium Smelter Company of Nigeria (ALSCON), particularly by engaging with key stakeholders in the industry.

Sen. Shettima stated this at a meeting with the management of Russian Aluminium Company – UC RUSAL and other stakeholders in the project, on the sideline of the ongoing Russia-Africa Summit in St. Petersburg, Russia.

The meeting with the stakeholders was in furtherance of the efforts by the Federal Government to reactivate production lines at ALSCON by re-engaging with UC RUSAL and other partners in the resuscitation of the plant.

Speaking after a presentation by the UC RUSAL management, Vice President Shettima noted the enormous benefits for the economy in many aspects such as in the area of energy transition, job creation both directly and indirectly, and its impact in the development of small businesses is also huge.

“The sooner we get this plant back to production, the better for everyone. We need to walk the talk; the Nigerian people deserve better,” he said.

The Vice President urged all the stakeholders to expedite work on the plan of action to restart production at the company.

President Putin noted in his opening remarks that the potential for trade and economic cooperation between Russia and African countries is much higher than the trade turnover of USD 18 billion seen in 2022.

However, he added that Russia would increase its support for Africa which accounts for 65% of the world’s arable land and around 10% of domestic renewable freshwater sources, noting that “its huge potential for the further development of agriculture.”

Meanwhile, others have related his visit to Russian president to that of the Ukrainian war, which was reads to be an attempt by Nigeria to support Russia against Ukraine.