Speaking to some Nigerian journalists in Istanbul, the President of Confederation of Businessmen and Industrialists of Turkey, (TUSKON) Mr Rizanur Meral said in 2008 total trade volumes between the two countries was $802million but risen to about $1.5billion(N250 billion) in 2012. He said the increase was due to awareness created by his association for the businessmen in the two countries through organizing seminars and business to business meetings.
The Public Relations Officer of the Istanbul branch, Ms. Fatima Demirtas, told THISDAY about Kimse Yok Mu’s collaboration with the Nizamiye hospital in Abuja to provide 1,000 cataract surgeries for indigent Nigerians. The NGO would pay for the cost of each unit of materials used for the surgeries.
The International Turkish Education Association’s (TÜRKÇEDER) Language and Culture Festival, which brought together 95 students from 27 countries under the motto “Hearts United,” was held in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa over the weekend.
The two-day forum produced two important agreements. On the first day, TUSKON signed a commercial partnership deal with the Ethiopia Chamber of Commerce and on the second day, the confederation signed a bilateral commercial agreement that promises to provide advantages to TUSKON members in trade not only with Ethiopia, but also with the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), which has 22 member countries.
Top executives from the Turkish Confederation of Businessmen and Industrialists (TUSKON), one of the country’s leading business confederations, are in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa to hold talks on mutual trade and investment relations with senior officials such as the Ethiopian prime minister and the ambassador to Ankara.
KYM Secretary General Savas Metin said this campus will function as a base in Malindi for the aid efforts to be done in the region. “We have brought drinking water for 1 million people, with the water wells we established in the drought-ridden Somalia, Ethiopia, Uganda and Kenya. We will not only educate underprivileged students at Light Academy but provide medical aid.”
Influential Muslim preacher Fethullah Gulen, who is considered by TIME magazine as “the most potent advocate of moderation in the Muslim world,” has strongly condemned the kidnappings in Nigeria as well as other such violent acts. In an interview he said that denying girls access to education simply goes against the spirit of the Muslim religious tradition and that women should be able to take on every role in our society, including those of physicians, military officers, judges and head of state.
Doctors who decided to volunteer at the Nile Hospital, established by Turkish charity organization Kimse Yok Mu and set to open in Uganda in few days, have left Turkey on their way to their new posts. The Nile Hospital will be opened very soon, Türkoğlu said, adding that the second doctor to commit to serving Ugandan patients was Sami Kiper.
Queen Ntombi Twala of Swaziland received a group of teachers from Turkish schools and businesspeople, affiliated with the Hizmet Movement, at her palace. “Success of the schools you established pleased me a lot. If you open such schools in our country, my people will benefit from them,” said Ntombi adding that she promise to support schools which will be opened in her country.
Turkish schools Yavuz Selim Educational Institutions are known with their qualified education in Senegal. Turkish schools opened by entrepreneurs affiliated with Hizmet Movement held a graduation ceremony for the students on their 11th academic year in Dakar.
Mining disaster victims, who lost their lives in Turkey’s deadliest mine explosion which took place in southwestern Turkish city of Manisa’s Soma district, commemorated in Senegal. Flags have been lowered to half-mast at the Yavuz Selim Eğitim Kurumları (Yavuz Selim Colleges), operating in the fields of education in Western African country of Senegal, also one of the prestigious tuition foundations in the country.
In the event, titled the Turkey-Central West Africa Trade Bridge, which was hosted by the Association of Aegean and Mediterranean Industrialists and Businesspeople (ESİDEF), a member of TUSKON, 250 businesspeople from Niger, Nigeria, Ghana and Burkina Faso — representing 100 firms — had the opportunity to meet with 300 Turkish businesspeople from the Aegean region.