President Bola Tinubu meets with three major world leaders at the G20 summit in economic development diplomacy.

Presidential spokesman Ajuri Ngelale disclosed in a statement on Sunday that Mr Tinubu met with the German chancellor, South Korean president and the Indian prime minister.

This was part of Tinubu’s diplomatic moves at the summit towards enhancing practical steps in bilateral relations.

The heads of state of these three nations have been identified as key partners in Mr Tinubu’s economic development diplomacy drive for local investment and wealth creation.

The president’s meeting with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz presented an opportunity to expand ties of prosperity for the people of Nigeria but with a pragmatic approach toward ensuring the effective execution of agreements struck.

“It is not, for us, only a matter of designing the financial architecture for an expanded economic partnership. ’It is also about the practicality of aligning the perspectives of your large-scale manufacturers, such as Volkswagen and others, with the reality of the new incentives my government is putting in place for them to come and prosper across multiple value chains and sectors inside of our country,” he said.

Mr Scholz responded by acknowledging the mutually beneficial nature of an escalation in the scale of economic ties with Africa’s largest economy.

“Thank you for this important discussion, Mr President. I can appreciate this opportunity to advance our economic relations. Your market is unique and our companies have history in Nigeria. ’We acknowledge the business-friendly reforms you have put in place. I am happy to inform you of my desire to visit you in Nigeria in October, which will allow us to carry forward these initiatives,” the German leader said.

The president accepted the German chancellor’s request to visit Nigeria for more talks.

The president proceeded to meet with the leader of Asia’s fourth largest economy, South Korea, during which its president, Yoon Suk Yeol, commended Mr Tinubu’s regional leadership in upholding democratic tenets and norms.

“I wish to commend your strong leadership, following the peaceful transfer of power to you from your predecessor, and we see a stable country in West Africa that is growing in stature,” he said.

Mr Tinubu explained his economic focus to the South Korean leaders and advanced proposals for an enhanced South Korean presence in Nigeria’s local manufacturing sector.

“We will work point by point with you to secure rapidly implementable MoUs across sectors of partnership that will involve the active presence of your biggest firms, not just in terms of Nigerian consumption, but in local Nigerian production, from telecommunications to technology and oil and gas,” Mr Tinubu said.

The South Korean president told Tinubu that Nigeria’s education, technology and energy sectors interest South Korean investors and that he will mobilise his business community to take advantage of new Nigerian incentives for local industry.

The president also met with the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who had invited Nigeria to the G-20 summit.

“There are many lessons our nation can learn from the rapid progress that India has made under your leadership. ’We see fantastic opportunity between our nations across sectors, such as agricultural development, but specifically, there is more we can do to advance ICT innovation and the emergence of Blue-Chip FinTech growth in Africa,” said Mr Tinubu. 

Mr Tinubu added, “Nigeria has the local players who can drive it from the front.”

Mr Modi applauded Tinubu for the economic partnership proposal and expressed gratitude for the Nigerian leader’s invitation to visit.

“Our teams must now stay close in touch to detail our priority areas of upscale cooperation with respect to agriculture, defence industries capacity building, and even fintech growth,” the Indian leader said. “I see your commitment. We believe there are immense prospects for Nigeria in the UPI (Unified Payments Interface), and we will ensure that we come together and make progress on these fronts very rapidly.”

During the G20 sideline meetings, Mr Tinubu also had informal exchanges of views with U.S. President Joe Biden, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and World Bank President Ajay Banga, among many others.

(NAN)