President Bola Tinubu says his administration is working assiduously to reform the nation’s economic and business environment to promote efficiency.

Mr Tinubu said this on Sunday during a bilateral meeting with the German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and his entourage in the Presidential Villa, Abuja, where he admitted Nigeria’s economy was “crawling”.

The president and the chancellor engaged in three separate meetings before addressing a joint press briefing.

“Nigeria is still crawling, but we are determined to change the narrative and bring about a transformative government in the country,” said Mr Tinubu.

He further stated, “Our economic team and members of the group are all here ready to partner with you, with Germany as the largest economy in Europe and the largest economy in Africa is Nigeria, you know that. We are blessed with a good environment, time of weather and blessed in terms of mineral resources.”

Mr Tinubu said his administration had improved the nation’s business environment, saying, “We are going through several reforms.”

According to the Nigerian leader, the country has a very high deposit of gas availability, and the investment environment and liquid natural gas are improving.

He also said Nigeria was ready to encourage investment in gas pipelines and that the LNG would facilitate the shipment of liquefied gas to Europe.

According to him, the government will continue to promote the opportunity to grow businesses and their partners.

He said the fuel subsidy removal and tax reforms to eliminate double taxation were to ensure investment growth.

“We definitely welcome you to the collaboration; we’re happy this is happening to us,” Mr Tinubu told his guest.

On the federal government’s alleged refusal to retrieve over 12,000 Nigerians who could not make Germany’s asylum provision and were at

risk of deportation, Mr Tinubu said such persons were welcome to return home.

He, however, disclosed that both countries were working

on regularising the stay of those who were economic refugees.”

Responding to the migration question, Mr Scholz said the debate was on, and very soon, the grey areas would be addressed.

The German chancellor regretted that minerals were ‘just about extraction’ as they ended up in other countries rather than for Nigeria’s development.

“I think that the investments into this structure must be easy but also beneficial for your country.

“It is something that bothered me a lot in the past that, sometimes, it is just about extraction, which is not enough,” he said.

(NAN)