President Bola Tinubu will be attending the 4th edition of the G20 Compact with Africa (CwA) Conference, being hosted by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, which is scheduled to kick off in Berlin, Germany on Monday.
The G20 CwA Conference will be taking place alongside the Fourth G20 Investment Summit, co-hosted by the German government and German business associations.
The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Ajuri Ngelale in a press release noted that the President will use the forum to sustain his momentum in advancing the cause for foreign direct investment in Nigeria as he leads the country’s delegation to participate in the investment summit.
However it has to be noted that Nigeria is not yet part of the compact countries under Compact with Africa framework. There are presently 10 compact countries in Africa which include Egypt, Ethiopia, Benin, Cote d’voire, Ghana, Morocco, Rwanda, Senegal, Togo, and Tunisia. Burkina Faso and Guinea who recently witnessed military coups are no longer part of the group.
Nigeria was invited to the Summit by the German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz during his last state visit to Nigeria around three weeks ago. Other African countries such as South Africa (already a member of G20), Angola, Mauritius, Kenya, DRC, Comoros and Zambia are also invited to the Summit.
Apart from the need to display Nigeria’s commitment to diplomatic reciprocity, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is actually honoring this invitation because of the opportunity it provides Nigeria to follow up and further consolidate business discussions and partnerships that were opened between Nigerian and the German business delegation that came with the German Chancellor to Abuja three weeks ago.
During the conference, President Tinubu will join other Heads of State and Governments of CwA member countries, bilateral partners, as well as Heads of International Organisations to deliberate on the immediate enhancement of economic and business cooperation to outline concrete measures to boost investments in critical areas such as energy, trade, infrastructure, and new technologies, among others.
The areas President Tinubu and the Nigerian delegation would be seeking investments include transportation, mining, and energy. Already, Nigeria is Germany’s second-largest trading partner in Africa. The mere fact that Nigeria and Germany are Africa’s and Europe’s largest economies respectively creates enough opportunities for collaboration and further partnership.
The President will be accompanied by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yusuf Tuggar; the Coordinating Minister of the Economy and Minister of Finance, Mr Wale Edun; the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr Doris Uzoka-Anite; and the Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu. From these names it is easy to predict the direction President Tinubu is more interested in, which is power, infrastructure and energy, especially gas.
The event is organized by the Sub-Saharan Initiative of German Business (SAFRI), jointly supported by the German-African Business Association (AV), the Federation of German Industries (BDI), the Federation of German Wholesale, Foreign Trade and Services (BGA), and the German Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DIHK). These are great shopping ground/platform for foreign direct investments.