20th January, 2013
Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan will embark on a working visit to Switzerland and Ethiopia tomorrow with engagements in Geneva and Davos devoted to drawing the attention of more members of the international business finance community to Nigeria’s immense investment potentials.
President Jonathan will at a meeting with an Eminent Persons Group on Nigeria’s Transformation Agenda in Geneva on Tuesday lead a drive to attract greater foreign expertise and capital to boost the Federal Government’s efforts to rapidly modernize and positively transform Nigeria’s agricultural sector.
Members of the Group include Mr. Bill Gates, the former Secretary-General of the United Nations, Dr. Kofi Annan, the President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development, Dr. Kanayo Nwanze, the President of the Africa Development Bank, Mr. Donald Kaberuka and the Chairman of the Del Monte Produce Group, Mr. Mohammed Abu-Ghazaleh.
The President will at a special session of the annual meeting of the world’s leading businessmen and industrialists at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Wednesday also promote new incentives for investment in Nigeria’s agricultural sector targeted at attracting greater international support for the establishment of a much more successful and profitable agro-allied industry in the country.
The session will also focus on ongoing policy and institutional reforms in the sector, the establishments of staple crop processing zones and medium to long term financing options for agriculture in Nigeria.
On Thursday, President Jonathan who will be accompanied by the Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Adewunmi Adesina, the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the Minister of National Planning, Dr. Shamsudeen Usman, the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Allison-Madueke, the Minister of Trade and Investment, Dr. Olusegun Aganga and the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, is scheduled to host a private session with representatives of leading multinational companies under the auspices of the Business Interactive Group on Nigeria.
The President will also seize the opportunity of his participation in special sessions of the World Economic Forum titled “De-Risking Africa” and “Africa’s Promise” to draw fresh global attention to the great opportunities which ongoing reforms and deregulation, privatisation and commercialisation of former public sector monopolies have opened up for willing investors in key sectors of the Nigerian economy such as oil and gas, power supply, communications, transportation and agriculture.
President Jonathan will meet privately with the Prime Ministers of the Netherlands and Norway, the President of Costa Rica and the Chief Executive Officers of the Huawei Technologies Company, Total and Coca-Cola Worldwide on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum.
He is expected to leave Switzerland on Friday for the African Union Summit of Heads of State and Government in Addis Ababa where he will confer with other African leaders on action to resolve the boundary dispute between Sudan and South Sudan as well as fresh and ongoing initiatives to restore peace, security, political stability and normalcy to Mali, Guinea-Bissau, Somalia and the Democratic Republic of Congo.