From Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Paris
Three world leaders and other countries have indicated interest to meet with President Bola Tinubu on the sidelines of New Global Financial Pact Summit holding at Palais Brongniart, France from June 22 to 23, 2023.
Special Adviser, Special Duties, Communication and Strategy, Dele Alake, made the disclosure while answering questions from journalists after President Tinubu received comprehensive briefing from members of his delegation ahead of his participation at a New Global Financing Pact Summit, Wednesday.
Alake said leaders from the United States, France, Switzerland, among others have already indicated interest to meet with Tinubu, especially after government’s policy on the unification of the Naira exchange rate, the domiciliary account restrictions removal, which are expected to unlock the country’s huge potential for investment, create jobs and capital flows, thereby enhancing investor confidence in the economy.
“So we are very, very hopeful, that some of these meetings is going to have will come to fruition and will bear very positive fruits and yield results for Nigeria,” he said.
Tinubu had in his inaugural speech on 29 May, criticised the Central Bank of Nigeria saying that monetary policy requires a “thorough house-cleaning”. And the CBN on June 14 announced the unification of all segments of the foreign exchange (FX) market, replacing the old regime of multiple exchange rate “windows” for different purposes with, in effect, a market rate.
Asked the expectations of Nigeria at the summit, Alake said the essence of this trip was to allow the president network as much as possible with international finance corporations, institutions and countries that could facilitate direct foreign investment into Nigeria.
He said Nigeria would require direct foreign injection of foreign exchange to build or complement ongoing domestic economic policies.
“At the last count about three, four different heads of state of developed countries have indicated willingness to meet with him, have a chat with him and explore areas of cooperation, on the economy, on agriculture, on other areas that are salient to the development of Nigeria’s economy. That is generally the essence of this meeting.”
Asked the countries that have shown interest in having a pact with Nigeria, Alake said: “Quite a number of them, the US, France itself, Switzerland and one or two others that I can’t readily recall now. There are so many institutions, international financial institutions that are also willing to see him. Some of them we are structuring either for tomorrow or Friday to meet with him and his team, and then consolidate some of the issues and provide, you know, more encouraging rhetoric for those people to come in and invest in Nigeria. Don’t forget that in the recent past, a lot of international investors exited Nigeria, because of the restrictive currency policies that we had, which made business to be so stifled. But now that these are being liberalised, and they’re freed to market forces, in the short run, we will need very comprehensive and robust direct foreign investment into the country.”