President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday hosted his South African counterpart, Cyril Ramaphosa, in the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Ramaphosa arrived at the Villa at about 10 am on Wednesday and was received by Buhari. He, thereafter, inspected a guard of honour and was treated to a 21-gun salute.
The South African President, who is on a two-day official visit to Nigeria, was received at the forecourt of the Presidential Villa by President Buhari before the two leaders went into closed-door bilateral talks.
This is Ramaphosa’s first visit to Nigeria as the substantive president of South Africa since he was elected about three years ago.
He had earlier visited Nigeria in 2018 while he was acting President following the controversial exit of ex-president Jacob Zuma from office.
Ramaphosa is, however, visiting Nigeria with his delegation at a time the Omicron COVID-19 variant was detected in South Africa, leading various European and Asian countries to place travel restrictions from the country.
His visit also comes on the day Nigeria reported three cases of the Omicron COVID variant.
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) said two of the cases who travelled from South Africa last week are asymptomatic.
