President Tinubu off to New York on Sunday for 78th UNGA

President Bola Tinubu will on Sunday, September 17, depart Abuja to attend the 78th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York, United States of America (USA).

The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Ajuri Ngelali, disclosed this to State House correspondents today September 15. According to Ngelale, alongside the General Assembly proceedings, the President has a series of key meetings with multinational executives to discuss digital transformation, innovation, and investment in Nigeria.

He said the President will also participate in important summits focusing on Sustainable Development Goals and climate ambition. Bilateral meetings with various world leaders will emphasize investment and economic development diplomacy.

“Aside from the engagements he’s going to be having at the General Assembly, there are series of very important side activities that will have wide ranging ramifications on the Nigerian economy. Following Mr. President’s successful trip to New Delhi for the G-20 and the staggering amount of investment he has been able to attract to Nigeria in a very short period of time, he is going to continue advancing very aggressively on his economic development, diplomatic drive, to attract foreign direct investment into the country.

So with that, I would like to inform you that His Excellency Mr. President will be having the following meetings with major chief executives and leaders of multinational firms cutting across multiple sectors of the economy.

The President will be meeting with the President of the Microsoft company worldwide, Brad Smith, with respect to how we can deepen digital transformation in the country, and how we can expand the digital economic footprint in the country to ensure that our micro and small enterprises will have access to the internet and have access to other smart technologies that will facilitate their ability to transact business quickly and efficiently.

Mr. President will also be meeting with Sir Nick Clegg who is the president of Global Affairs for Meta technologies, that is expected to be a wide ranging conversation with respect to how we can leverage on new innovations such as artificial intelligence and certain other applications to impact the way we do business in Nigeria.

He will also be meeting with the global CEO of General Electric. Of course, the General Electric is a very well known international organization that cuts across multiple sectors, they have very deep involvement in the energy sector electric power generation aviation, you know, engine production for multiple modes of transportation, amongst many other inputs. So we expect that to be a very important interaction,” Ngelale said.

He announced the President will be meeting with the global CEO of Exxon Mobil Oil and Gas Company. He added that the Federal Government sees this as a major opportunity to once again lay out in detail what Nigeria has on offer with respect to the implementation of the petroleum industry Act and the fiscal and tax incentives that are being put forward by the current administration.

He said the diplomatic meeting will further advance investment in the oil and gas sector not just in terms of oil, but more in terms of gas.