Vice-President Kashim Shettima has restated Nigeria’s readiness to do business with the rest of the world.
Mr Shettima gave the assurance on Tuesday during a courtesy visit by a delegation from Advanced Energy Partners to the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
He said that the ongoing reforms undertaken by President Bola Tinubu’s administration across sectors were opening new investment opportunities.
“There is no better time to invest in Nigeria than now. You have come at the right time when we have been blessed with committed leadership,” he said.
Mr Shettima said that Tinubu’s administration, through targeted policies and interventions, was creating an enabling environment for the economy to grow and attract foreign direct investment.
“Be assured that you have invested your trust in the right nation. Nigeria is ready for business. We have crossed the Rubicon and are now on the path of sustainable development,” he told the delegation.
Earlier, the chairman of the consortium, Abu Ibrahim, said the team was on the ground in Nigeria to, among other things, explore major investment opportunities in the upstream oil industry and other sectors of the economy.
Also, the vice-president of China North Industries Corporation, QIANG Wenyu, said the visit was in furtherance of an earlier meeting with President Tinubu in September 2024 in Beijing.
Mr Wenyu reiterated the company’s commitment to collaborating with Nigerian partners in key sectors of the nation’s economy. He said the company was prepared to fulfill its earlier pledge to deepen cooperation and expand its operations in Nigeria, noting that “for the past one year, we have been acting on that”.
He listed NORINCO’s core areas of operations as energy, oil and gas, defence, industry, and mining, among others. He noted that the company’s annual turnover grew to $30 billion last year, while maintaining a strong reputation in its core fields of operations.
For her part, the CEO of Horizon Energy, Abu Dhabi, Mahra Al Suwaidi, applauded the leadership of Mr Tinubu, attributing the company’s renewed interest to invest in Nigeria to the country’s current leadership. She added that the firm’s confidence in the current administration was reflected in the management of key institutions, including NNPCL.
In the same vein, the United Arab Emirates’ ambassador to Nigeria, Salem Al Shamsi, urged the consortium to waste no time in investing in Nigeria, describing the country as the “right place” for foreign investment. He noted that Mr Tinubu’s administration was the “right government”, having strengthened Nigeria’s economic and bilateral ties with the UAE, leading to non-oil trade between both countries amounting to 4.3 billion dollars in 2024.
(NAN)
