Nigeria, France sign 5 cooperation agreements

Nigeria's Minister of Foreign Affairs Geoffrey Onyeama on Sunday announced the signing of five bilateral agreements between his country and France.

The Nigerian official said in a statement made available to Xinhua that the five bilateral agreements were signed in a closed-door meeting between President Muhammadu Buhari and the visiting French President, Francois Hollande on Saturday.

The minister said the agreements included three with government's agencies and two for the private sector.

According to him, there was a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the cultural, scientific education and technical cooperation and this was between the French government and Nigerian government.

He said there was MoU between the French Development Agency and the Federal Ministry of Finance.

Onyeama told reporters that there was another agreement between the Finance Ministry and this was with the National Power Training Institute of Nigeria.

"So, those are the three agreements with government's institutions and there were two private sector agreements," he added.

According to the minister, there was one again with the French Development Agency and Zenith Bank, which was represented by its chairman, among other.

The French President Hollande also confirmed the signing of the agreements during a joint news conference with President Muhammadu Buhari after the closed door bilateral meeting between Nigeria and France.