At two bilateral summits this week in Saudi Arabia, President Bola Tinubu is prepared to bring his government’s strong campaign for increased FDI and infrastructure development in Nigeria to the kingdom.
Ajuri Ngelale, the President’s Special Advisor on Media and Publicity, revealed this information to reporters at the State House in Abuja on Sunday. She said that Tinubu will be attending two important summits: the Saudi-African Summit and the Arab-African Summit, which will both be held in Riyadh, the Saudi capital, on November 10 and 11, respectively.
Ngelale claims that while the events cater to various interests, the outings will be crucial to Nigeria’s ability to capitalise on the potential of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA), given its $29 trillion market and population of over a billion.
According to the presidential spokesperson, the goal of the Saudi-African Summit is to examine topics related to Saudi Arabia and Africa’s economic relations, such as ecology, agriculture, counterterrorism, and other areas of shared interest.
According to Ngelale, the President’s second visit to Saudi Arabia, the Arab-African Summit, will centre on building new high-speed train connections between the countries of the African Union and the Arab League of Nations, with a particular emphasis on infrastructure expansion between the two regions.
“President Bola Tinubu will be travelling to Riyadh, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, in order to attend two significant summits,” he declared. The first is the Saudi-Africa Summit, where a number of issues pertaining to the economic ties between the regions—such as agriculture, the environment, counterterrorism, and many other areas of mutual concern—will be discussed. In our opinion, much more can be done to accelerate trade and investment between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the African continent.
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The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa estimates that by the year 2050, our market here on the continent will have surpassed $29 trillion. It is clear that His Excellency, President Tinubu, is very keen to ensure that the Federal Republic of Nigeria, within the context of the continent, is in a position to maximally leverage opportunities that will be afforded by the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement. We think the first step towards that is right now.
Thus, the president will take the lead in spearheading that endeavour and will be highly involved. On November 10, that will take place, and then there will be a crucial meeting. This is the Arab-African Summit, which is scheduled for November 11. His Excellency, President Bola Tinubu, will be attending in his capacity as Chairman of the ECOWAS Authority of Heads of Government in addition to being the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. He will be leading the charge in promoting a deeper partnership between the two regions—the African Union and the League of Arab Nations—about how to better integrate our infrastructure and how to make it easier to build a new high-speed train network that would connect Arab countries in the Middle East and Northern Africa to the rest of Africa.
Speaking specifically about what Nigeria stands to gain from the trips, the presidential spokesperson stated that expectations are for increased trade and commerce relations, not only between Nigeria and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia but also between the nation and the Arab world, as well as for the return of real and stronger economic ties.
He said, “His Excellency Mr. President is certainly passionate about any areas in which we can really leverage the massive market and population that Nigeria itself presents, in addition to the rest of Africa.” We anticipate that this summit will produce very concrete effects in the form of increased commerce between not only the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia but all Arab countries as well, particularly the top economies in Africa, with Nigeria currently leading the pack.
Therefore, we think that these two summits will provide a lot of benefits. Naturally, while we are there, you can absolutely anticipate that you will be regularly updated with specifics regarding the results of the Saudi African and Arab-African summits, with a focus on course for the Federal Republic of Nigeria, especially under the direction of His Excellency Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
“Lastly, I would like to state that, as usual, His Excellency, Mr. President, will pursue and promote fresh foreign direct investment with great vigour. It is well known that he has been around the globe since taking power and that he will keep doing so in Riyadh.
We will be engaging with investors from a variety of industries, and we will be aggressively advocating for fresh foreign exchange inflows into the Nigerian economy through investments in labour-intensive and truly growth-enabling industries.
“I want to reassure the Nigerian people today that His Excellency President Bola Ahmed Tinubu will do everything in his power to revitalise the Nigerian economy through the instrumentation of his leading participation in these two important summits. There should be more information on that once we get into Riyadh.”
