The infrastructure in Nigeria "needs a major turnaround" and Russia has been observed to have "a good deal of infrastructure and development", CEO of Fitzpatrick Energy and Logistics Ltd., Patrick Adekunle, says.
"There's a need for us to have an engagement of collaboration, partnership, joint venture cooperation that will be well defined and will be of mutual benefit to both countries," he says.
Russia and Nigeria have huge cooperation potential in the oil and gas sectors as well as pharmaceuticals, according to Mikhail Orlov, the Chairman of the Russian-Egyptian Business Council.
However, "very often different cultures do not understand each other", and this can negatively affect business relations. To fix this problem, Orlov encourages the exchange of students between African countries and Russia.
"Anybody from another country coming to Russia studying here ends up with not only the knowledge of what he learned, but the knowledge of a culture, of a language, of a community, etc.," Mikhail Orlov explains.
Speaking of cultural relations, the duty of the Nigerian Diaspora in Moscow, for example, is "to make sure that we build a very strong and reliable bridge between Nigeria and Russia so that we can do business, exchange culture and know each other more so that we can do business together," says Sampson Uwem-Edimo, the organization's Chairman.
"Most of the people coming around, they are just coming around to actually loot Africa, but not developing Africa," Honorary Commissioner for Regional Integration in the Ondo State of Nigeria, Prince Adeboboye Ologbese, believes.
"If Russia comes around to say that they want to go into the area of industrialization, they will provide the leadership for Africa and Africa will be great, and Russia will be better than where it is today," he concludes.
For more details, check out the entire episode of the AfroVerdict podcast, brought to you by Sputnik Africa, and stay tuned for the second part of the episode.
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