Paris summit: Foreign investors are showing interest in Nigeria’s agric sector, says Dele Alake

Dele Alake, special adviser to the president on special duties, communication, and strategy, says world leaders have indicated interest to meet with President Bola Tinubu to discuss potential investment in Nigeria.

Alake spoke to journalists after a meeting with Tinubu in France on Wednesday.

Departing Nigeria on Tuesday, Tinubu is one of the world leaders expected to attend the New Global Financial Pact Summit slated for June 22 and 23 in France’s Palais Brongniart.

Alake said the participation of the country in the summit was to network with international finance corporations and institutions as well as countries.

The president’s special adviser said leaders from the United States of America, France, and Switzerland have already indicated interest to meet Tinubu, especially after the implementation of the government’s policy on foreign exchange rate unification, removal of domiciliary account restrictions, among others.

In his inaugural speech on May 29, Tinubu had said the “monetary policy needs thorough house cleaning”, adding that the apex bank must “work towards a unified exchange rate”.

Consequently, the CBN floated the naira, unifying all segments of the forex exchange (FX) market.

Alake said apart from the immediate, short, and long term positive effects of the unification policy, an infusion of direct FX into the economy might be necessary to support the value of the naira while market forces stabilise.

He said an injection of foreign direct investment (FDI) was needed to complement the country’s domestic policies.

“There are several heads of state of developed societies that Mr. president’s policies in the last three weeks have really encouraged to become more interested in the affairs of Nigeria in shoring up the economy,” he said.

“So, a lot of them are quite interested; so many of them have even indicated interest to meet with Mr. president on this trip. Some time ago, we were having a meeting with the president structuring some of these meetings with heads of state upstairs.

“At the last count, about three to four different heads of state of developed countries have indicated the willingness to meet with him, have a chat with him, and explore areas of cooperation, on the economy, on agriculture, and on other areas that are salient to the development of Nigeria’s economy. That is generally the essence of this meeting.”

Alake added that a number of countries have also shown interest in signing deals with Nigeria.

“Quite a number of them: the US, France itself, Switzerland, and one or two others that I cannot readily recall now. There are so many institutions and international financial institutions that are also willing to see him,” he said.