President Bola Tinubu has met with the Heads of State of Germany, South Korea and India which have been identified as key partners in his economic development diplomacy drive for local investment and wealth creation.
Tinubu met the German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, South Korean President, Yoon Suk Yeol, at the side rooms of the G-20 Summit in New Delhi, India.
For the Leader of Africa’s largest economy, Tinubu’s meeting with Europe’s largest economy, Germany, presented a unique opportunity to expand ties of prosperity for the people of Nigeria, but with a pragmatic approach toward ensuring the effective execution of agreements struck.
The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Ajuri Ngelale, stated this in a statement made available to TheIdeal News on Sunday.
Tinubu said, “It is not, for us, only a matter of designing the financial architecture for an expanded economic partnership. It is also about the practicality of aligning the perspectives of your large-scale manufacturers, such as Volkswagen and others, with the reality of the new incentives my government is putting in place for them to come and prosper across multiple value chains and sectors inside of our country.”
Speaking on the specific economic focus of Tinubu’s proposal, German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, responded by acknowledging the mutually-beneficial nature of an escalation in the scale of economic ties with Africa’s largest economy.
Scholz said, “Thank you for this important discussion, Mr. President. I can appreciate this opportunity to advance our economic relations. Your market is unique and our companies have history in Nigeria. We acknowledge the business friendly reforms you have put in place. I am happy to inform you of my desire to visit you in Nigeria in October, which will allow us to carry forward these initiatives.”
Following President Tinubu’s acceptance of the German Chancellor’s request to visit, the Nigerian President proceeded to sit down with the Leader of Asia’s fourth largest economy, South Korea, during which, South Korean President, Yoon Suk Yeol, commended Tinubu’s regional leadership in upholding democratic tenets and norms.
He said, “I wish to commend your strong leadership, following the peaceful transfer of power to you from your predecessor and we see a stable country in West Africa that is growing in stature.”
President Tinubu responded by swiftly steering the discussion toward his economic focus as he immediately advanced proposals for an enhanced South Korean presence in Nigeria’s local manufacturing sector.
He said, “We will leave nothing hanging. We will finalise what we agree to and we will execute. We will work point by point with you to secure rapidly implementable MoUs across sectors of partnership that will involve the active presence of your biggest firms, not just in terms of Nigerian consumption, but in local Nigerian production, from telecommunications to technology, and oil & gas”.
The South Korean President responded in agreement, noting specifically that Nigeria’s education, technology and energy sectors are of utmost interest to South Korean investors and that he will mobilize his business community to take advantage of new Nigerian incentives for local industry.
Offering an invitation to visit Nigeria, President Tinubu would conclude formal discussions at the G-20 with the Asian giant and host nation, which had invited Nigeria to the G-20 Summit, as he met with Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi.
Tinubu said, “There are many lessons our nation can learn from the rapid progress that India has made under your leadership. We see fantastic opportunity between our nations across sectors, such as agricultural development, but specifically, there is more we can do to advance ICT innovation and the emergence of Blue-Chip FinTech growth in Africa. Nigeria has the local players who can drive it from the front.”
The hosting Indian leader Modi responded in the affirmative to the economic partnership proposal just as he expressed gratitude for the Nigerian leader’s invitation to visit.
Modi said, “Our teams must now stay close in touch to detail our priority areas of upscaled cooperation with respect to agriculture, defense industries capacity building, and even FinTech growth. I see your commitment. We believe there are immense prospects for Nigeria in the UPI (Unified Payments Interface) and we will ensure that we come together and make progress on these fronts very rapidly.”
During the G-20 sideline meetings, President Tinubu also had informal exchanges of views with the United States President Joe Biden; European Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen; and World Bank President, Ajay Banga, amongst many others.
