The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Mr Nyesom Wike, said on Tuesday that the FCT Administration would partner with the Republic of South Korea on vocational education.

Wike also expressed willingness to partner with Turkiye on agricultural development.

The minister stated this when the Ambassadors of South Korea to Nigeria and his Turkiye counterpart visited him in his office.

He told the Ambassador of South Korea to Nigeria, Kim Young-Chae on Tuesday, that he visited the country while he was the minister of education and discussed the issue of vocational education.

He described South Korea’s vocational education model as “impressive”, saying that the model enables students who do not want to go further, to have some skills.

“It was my desire that we would have concluded with that partnership then, but unfortunately, that was not to be.

“I would also like to reintroduce that as the FCT minister to see how we can also have that vocational school,” he said.

Wike added that he would like to introduce a hands-on model to the vocational schools and skill acquisition centres in the FCT.

This, he said, would be in partnership with the Republic of South Korea.

He said that he was impressed when he visited Samsung and noticed that sometimes, the company supplies refrigerators and cars to the vocational schools for practical purposes.

“I think we have to see how we can come back to that issue because vocational education is very key to us,” he said.

Earlier, Young-Chae informed the minister about his country’s collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture and the Rural Electrification Agency.

He said that the aim was to build a mini electricity grid in the FCT which was ongoing.

He also disclosed that South Korea plans to introduce a grant project to help young businessmen start new businesses.

This, he said, was in addition to the Nigeria-Korea Model School in the FCT and other training programmes for teachers.

“In addition to that, we have launched a smart school project, one in each of the six geopolitical zones, to help innovate schools in terms of communication technology and teachers’ education,” he said.

In a related development, the FCT minister, while hosting the Turkiye Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr Hidayet Bayrakter, on Monday, said that FCT has large arable land for agricultural development.

He said that collaboration with Tirkiye in that regard would be beneficial for both countries.

On the Abuja metro rail line, the minister said that the FCT Administration has an open-door policy and would be willing to discuss with companies from Turkey.

Wike, however, appealed for a review of Turkish visa policy, pointing out that the policy of short-term, single-entry visas may not be good enough to enhance business collaborations.

Earlier, Bayrakter sought the collaboration of the FCT Administration in the construction of the second phase of the ongoing Abuja metro line system.

The ambassador said that Turkiye had very capable construction companies with experience in rail constructions as well as suspension bridges.

Some of the companies, he said, were involved in the construction of the metro system in Dubai and Qatar, in addition to building one of the biggest suspension bridges in the world.

He said that the companies have expressed interest in partnering with the FCT Administration.

He expressed the readiness of Turkish investors to meet with the FCT minister for further discussions on the second phase of the rail project.