At meeting with Saudi CEOs, Tinubu promises to remove investment bottlenecks in Nigeria

President Bola Tinubu on Saturday promised to remove all negative perceptions about the Nigerian business environment.

The president gave the assurance during a meeting with the captains of the Saudi Arabian industry at the Nigeria-Saudi Investment Roundtable in Riyadh.

He said the new administration in Nigeria was tackling headlong the wrong notions on the ease of doing business, monetary policy, and trade cooperation.

Tinubu said: “I believe in this team that I have brought from Nigeria. When I took office, I declared the immediate commencement of bold and fundamental economic reforms.

“We have executed them, and we sustain the reform process. Today, I declare that the red tape is gone.

“I believe in the full application of free market economics. Your money will flow easily in and easily out. The arbitrage around our nation’s old foreign exchange policy regime and the corruption that was associated with it is also gone.

“We took on those bold endeavours from day one in preparation for serious investors like you seated here. The greatest opportunity for any entity to prosper lies in its human capital.

“My team is prepared. We can produce. Our market is full of Nigerian youths who are brilliant, highly educated, industrious, and passionate about innovation and engagement with world-class services.

“The navigation of the ship of this great nation lies in the membership seated here. We are ready to answer all of your questions directly, even into this night if need be. The sky is not just the limit, but it is the destination for our two countries and people.”

In his remark, Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Trade and Investment, Khalid El-Falih, said the country’s investment community would respond to President Tinubu’s address with new investments across several sectors of the Nigerian economy.

He said: “The Minister of Commerce and I will be visiting Nigeria either before the end of this year or very early next year with a very large delegation of Saudi CEOs from all key sectors.

“We know you are ready for business, so we do not want to come to Nigeria for any exploratory discussion. We are coming for implementation. It is an action visit.

“Mr. President, you agree with me that good intentions alone will not take us anywhere, so we will prepare well with your team and our investors will align with your officials, beginning now, to develop a concrete work plan of investments in the key sectors for takeoff when we meet again.

“When we meet soon in Abuja, it will be to sign and begin delivery on all agreements. We will also use the opportunity to formally inaugurate the Nigeria-Saudi Business Council.”

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