South Africa’s companies will soon be able to have a stake in Niger’s meat and diary industries, Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said on Wednesday. She met her Niger counterpart, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Cooperation and African Integration Aichatou Mindaoudou, in Pretoria.
They held political and economic discussions but focused on two projects — the setting up of an abattoir in Niger to kick-start the country’s meat industry, and a dairy production facility.
”The feasibility study is already completed and government will facilitate with the Industrial Development Corporation and some others to see the project implemented,” Dlamini-Zuma said.
She said the feasibility study to get the country’s diary industry going with the establishment of dairy production facilities is also under way.
”Anybody who has been to Niger would know there are just millions and millions of cattle there,” Dlamini-Zuma said.
The West African country is one of the poorest in the world and much of its economy is based on subsistence farming.
South Africa is also looking at the country’s mineral and energy sectors. Niger has some of the world’s largest uranium deposits as well as iron, coal, gold and oil.
”Your country has a lot of experience in the explorations and exploitations of such minerals, so what we need is to cooperate so that we could find mutual interests in these fields,” Mindaoudou said.
Dlamini-Zuma said a South African trade delegation will travel to Niger later this year.
The two countries are also setting up a joint commission that will first meet in 2008. South Africa intends to open an embassy in Niger this year, and Niger plans to open one in South Africa in 2008. — Sapa