Nigeria, 3 others to get $553million aid as Tillerson begins Africa tour

macfranc007 March 07, 2018 Nigeria News today & Breaking news ▷ Read Nigerian newspapers 24/7 Oluwatobi Bolashodun

- Rex Tillerson, departs for his first official visit to Africa, as the U.S. Secretary of State

- Tillerson is on a weeklong four-country official visit to Nigeria, Kenya, Ethiopia and Djibouti

- The U.S. Secretary of State expressed optimism that there was ample opportunity in Africa

U.S. Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, has departed for Africa on a weeklong four-country official visit to Nigeria, Kenya, Ethiopia and Djibouti.

The visit will end March 13.

Mr. Tillerson, during the visit, would engage with President Muhammadu Buhari and other top government functionaries, and the leaders of the three other countries.

The trip, his first official visit to Africa, as Secretary of State, would take him first to Ethiopia and then to Djibouti from where he would go to Kenya, and then to Chad, before coming to Nigeria.

Tillerson announced the $533million aid for the African countries while speaking at George Mason University in Virginia shortly before departing the US for Africa.

He expressed optimism that there was ample opportunity in Africa – for economic growth, for greater prosperity, and for responding to global challenges through mutually respectful partnerships.

According to him, he looks forward to returning and building on a strong foundation of U.S.-Africa relations, including visiting Chad, a country that has never before welcomed a visit by the Secretary of State.

Speaking on ‘U.S.-Africa Relations: A New Framework’, he said over the past century, as African nations emerged from their colonial past, there had been a dramatic increase in America’s engagement with Africa.

“Forty years ago this month, President Jimmy Carter visited Liberia and Nigeria, where he announced that ‘our nation has now turned in an unprecedented way toward Africa’.

“Today that turning continues. Our country’s security and economic prosperity are linked with Africa’s like never before,” he said, adding the Africa-U.S. engagement will only intensify in the coming decades for several reasons.

He noted that by the year 2030, Africa would represent about one quarter of the world’s workforce and by the year 2050, the population of the continent is expected to double to more than 2.5 billion people – with 70 per cent of them under the age of 30.

NAIJ.com previously reported the United Sate of America (USA) disclosed that Nigeria’s 2019 general elections and a peaceful transition, remained its major priority in view of the country’s strategic position in the region.

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The US department of state said during a background briefing on the first trip of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to Africa, monitored by the News Agency of Nigeria in New York.

Tillerson would meet with Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari and other top government functionaries, and also leaders of Chad, Djibouti, Ethiopia and Kenya during his travels from Tuesday, March 6 to 13.

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