…Earlier, President Tinubu had spelt out the bold reforms his administration and team has undertaken since coming into office, reiterating his commitment to removing all bottlenecks to ease of doing business
SUN, NOV 12 2023-theGBJournal|Saudi Arabia’s Trade and Investment Minister, Kahlid El-Falih said on Saturday that Nigerians can expect substantial new investment across several sectors of its economy.
El-Falih gave the assurance during the deliberation between the Captains of Saudi Arabian Industry and Nigeria’s business leaders as well as President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
“The Minister of Commerce and I will be visiting Nigeria either before the end of this year or very early next year with a very large delegation of Saudi CEOs from all key sectors. We know you are ready for business, so we do not want to come to Nigeria for any exploratory discussion. We are coming for implementation. It is an action visit,” El-Falih said.
“Mr. President, you agree with me that good intentions alone will not take us anywhere, so we will prepare well with your team and our investors will align with your officials, beginning now, to develop a concrete work plan of investments in the key sectors for takeoff when we meet again. When we meet soon in Abuja, it will be to sign and begin delivery on all agreements. We will also use the opportunity to formally inaugurate the Nigeria-Saudi Business Council.
Saudi Arabia’s Commerce Minister, Majid bin Abdullah Al Qasabi, previewed how Saudi Arabia can further contribute to the soft infrastructural reforms needed to unlock game-changing quantums of foreign direct investment in Nigeria.
“We have signed an agreement with the World Economic Forum on the reform of the services sector in Africa. In developed economies, the services sector contributes enormously to GDP. But in the developing world, we tend to focus on goods.
So, we would like to make Nigeria the pilot country in this agreement with WEF to study Nigeria’s service challenges to make it seamless and make the supply chains across sectors streamlined and raised to international standard to enhance Nigeria’s economic and investment viability over the long-term,” he stated.
Earlier, President Tinubu had spelt out the bold reforms his administration and team has undertaken since coming into office, reiterating his commitment to removing all bottlenecks to ease of doing business and declared that Nigeria is “open for business.”
According to the President, “I believe in this team that I have brought from Nigeria. When I took office, I declared the immediate commencement of bold and fundamental economic reforms. We have executed them, and we sustain the reform process. Today, I declare that red tape is gone!
“I believe in the full application of free market economics. Your money will flow easily in and easily out. The arbitrage around our nation’s old foreign exchange policy regime and the corruption that was associated with it is also gone!
“We took on those bold endeavours from day one in preparation for serious investors like you seated here. The greatest opportunity for any entity to prosper lies in its human capital. My team is prepared. We can produce.”
He noted Nigeria’s market is full of Nigerian youths who are brilliant, highly educated, industrious, and passionate about innovation and engagement with world-class services.
“The navigation of the ship of this great nation lies in the membership seated here. We are ready to answer all of your questions directly, even into this night if need be. The sky is not just the limit, but it is the destination for our two countries and peoples,” the Nigerian President confidently affirmed.
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