Vice President Yemi Osinbajo says the Buhari administration will be happy to work closely with other countries who share similar socio-economic objectives in order to increase economic opportunities and healthcare delivery to the citizens.
Professor Osinbajo said this on Tuesday when he received, on a courtesy visit to the Presidential Villa, Ambassador Dato’ Ku Jaafar Ku Shaari, Secretary General of the D-8 Organisation for Economic Cooperation.
The D-8 top official is in Nigeria as the Health and Social Protection Programme of the Group is being established in the country.
The Vice President in a statement issued by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity Laolu Akande, congratulates him on the signing of the partnership agreement for the Health and Social Protection Programme noting that it is important for Nigeria and for all D-8 countries.
Speaking further on the focal areas of cooperation of the D-8, Professor Osinbajo said, “We are hopeful that you will succeed in deepening the impact of the focal areas of trade, industry, energy and tourism, in all of our countries. We are happy that, working with the other countries, we can achieve our economic objectives.
Earlier in his remark, Ambassador Dato’ Ku Jaafar Ku Shaari who thanked Nigeria for hosting the secretariat of the D-8 Health and Social Protection Programme, said implementing programmes on health and poverty alleviation was key to the agenda of the organisation.
He also spoke on the D-8’s forthcoming summit in Bangladesh later in the year where a new road map and plan of action for the actualisation of the organisation’s targets will be launched.
The D-8 countries include Bangladesh, Egypt, Nigeria, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Pakistan and Turkey with a combined population of approximately 1 billion covering an area of 7.6 million square kilometres and, 5% of world land area.
The Memorandum of Understanding for the establishment of the Health and Social Protection Programme Secretariat was signed earlier in the day at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Headquarters
