He spoke at Aso Villa on Thursday during talks with a Russian led Russian agriculture minister Alexander Tkachev.

Daily trust has reported that The delegation comprised Russian Ambassador to Nigeria Nikolay Udovichenko, Deputy Minister of Agriculture Mr Evgeny Gromyko and officials of Russian’s firm-United Company (Rusal).

“The oil prices have gone down tremendously and yet large amount of foreign exchange is used to purchase food abroad, and we have large arable land for agric. It won’t make sense, if you don’t use the land,” Osinbajo said.

 He called on Russian farmers “to invest in Nigeria, produce and import from here. We are just six hours away from Europe air. Vegetables, flour can be exported to Europe from here. Even our local market here is a lot.”

The vice president and the delegation agreed that Nigeria and Russia should deepen the existing diplomatic relationship, especially economically.

 “There is a lot of money to be made if Russian technology in agriculture is deployed locally. There are better opportunities for economic cooperation between both countries,” Osinbajo said.

 Earlier, Tkachev had told disclosed that Nigeria and Russia trade volume was over $300 million last year, adding that both countries had potentials for trade improvement.  

 Tkachev, who is also the co-chairmain of the Nigeria-Russia Joint Commission, expressed his country’s willingness to enhance the existing trade relations with Nigeria.

Source: Daily trust