NEWS FLASH: PRESIDENT TINUBU SETS TO ATTEND SAUDI-AFRICA, ARAB-AFRICA SUMMIT IN RIYADH

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By Aishat Momoh. O.

While attending this week’s Saudi-Africa Summit and Arab-Africa Summit, President Bola Tinubu plans to promote investment in Arab countries.

Special Advisor on Media and Publicity Ajuri Ngelale briefed the State House Correspondent on Sunday before the President’s departure to Riyadh on Wednesday. She explained that this is a part of President Tinubu’s efforts to push for new foreign exchange inflows into the Nigerian economy through investments in labour-intensive and growth-enabling sectors of the economy.

Foreign investment in Nigeria has been actively encouraged by President Tinubu. In order to raise money from around the world for infrastructure development and to encourage more foreign direct investments in important areas of the Indian economy in order to create jobs and increase revenue, he recently attended the G20 conference in India.

In order to reaffirm the long-lasting commitment to the U.S.-Nigeria connection, he had also advocated for increased U.S. investment in Nigeria during his meeting with President Joe Biden on the fringes of the G20 summit in India.

Ngelale claims that President Tinubu will first attend the Saudi-African Summit, which is set for November 10.

The spokesman for the president emphasised that Tinubu will primarily discuss topics of shared interest at the Saudi Arabian summit, including bolstering regional economic connections in relation to counterterrorism, the environment, and agriculture, among other things.

“President Bola Ahmed Tinubu will be heading to Riyadh, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to attend two major summits. The first of which is the Saudi Africa summit, at which several areas of mutual concern will be addressed with respect to the economic ties between the regions with respect to the issues of counterterrorism the environment agriculture, and many other areas of mutual concern”.

Ngelale continued, saying that the Tinubu will spearhead Africa’s efforts to take advantage of the prospects presented by the African Continental Free Trading Agreement’s implementation, which will create a single trading market with over one billion Africans.

“President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is very keen on ensuring that Nigeria within the context of the continent is in a position to maximally leverage on opportunities that will be afforded by the implementation of the African continental Free Trade Agreement, where we will be having a single trade market of over one billion Africans. The expectation according to the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa is that by the year 2050, our market here on the continent would have surpassed $29 trillion. We believe that action toward that begins now. So the President is going to be very active and leading that effort from the forefront.”

The President’s Spokesperson also revealed that President Tinubu will attend the November 11th Arab-African League summit in his capacity as the Chairman of ECOWAS and as the head of the Authority of heads of government, promoting a deeper partnership between the two regions with regard to infrastructure development and African integration.

He made it clear that this would only apply to the construction of a new high-speed rail network connecting Arab countries in the Middle East and North Africa with the rest of Africa.

“That is the Arab African summit holding on November 11. Where his excellency President Bola Tinubu in his capacity, not just as the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, but also as the ECOWAS chairman and the authority of heads of government, will be taking part in the summit ensuring that he is at the forefront of advocating for rallying a deepening partnership of the two regions, that is the League of Arab nations as well as the African Union with respect to how we can integrate in terms of our infrastructure, how we can facilitate the establishment of a new high-speed train network that would tie Arab nations from the Middle East and Northern Africa, to the rest of the African continent.”

The president’s spokesperson promised that the outcomes of the two summits will result in concrete steps towards increasing commerce between all Arab countries and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, particularly Nigeria, which has one of the largest economies in Africa.

“Certainly, His Excellency Mr. President is passionate about any area in which we can really leverage on the massive population and market that not just Africa presents but that Nigeria itself presents. We are expecting that the outcomes of this summit will lead to very tangible results with respect to increase in trade between not just the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, but all Arab nations, and especially the leading economies in Africa, of which Nigeria is now number one.

“So we believe there’s a lot to be gained from these two summits. Of course, as we are there, you can fully expect that you will be briefed on a routine basis with concrete details as to what the outcomes are from not just the Saudi African summit, but also the Arab African summit, but obviously with a particular emphasis on what the Federal Republic of Nigeria stands to gain under the leadership of His Excellency Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

“Mr. President, is going to be very aggressive as always, in his promotion, and pursuit of new foreign direct investment. It’s no secret what he’s been doing around the world since he assumed office that will continue in Riyadh, we will be meeting with investors across sectors, we will be pushing very proactively for new inflows of foreign exchange into the Nigerian economy through investments in really growth enabling and labor intensive sectors of the economy.

Riyadh is the venue for both the Saudi-African Summit and the Arab-African Summit.

Investors have praised Tinubu’s administration for implementing the most audacious reforms the nation has seen in decades.