Just In: Buhari Departs Nigeria For Saudi Arabia

President Muhammadu Buhari will on Monday, October 28, depart Nigeria for Riyadh, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

This was disclosed in a statement posted on the Instagram handle of a presidential aide, Buhari Sallau.

Naija News reports that Buhari is set to attend the third edition of the Future Investment Initiative organised by Saudi’s Public Investment Fund.

The event which holds from Tuesday, October 29 to Thursday, October 31, will focus on three key pillars: Sustainable Future, Technology for Good and Advanced Society.

According to the statement, the three-day event will be held under the patronage of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Salman bin Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia and chaired by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, deputy premier, chairman of the Council of Economic and Development Affairs and PIF.

“Given the increased investor confidence in Nigeria’s economy, President Buhari will use the occasion to speak about the economic opportunities that abound in Nigeria, the effectiveness of his administration’s policies to improve the business environment, and invite investors to the country,” the release noted.

Continuing, it said, “It is noteworthy that the total value of capital inflow into Nigeria increased from $12bn in the first half-year of 2018 to US$14 billion for the same period in 2019.

“The Nigerian delegation will leverage on the resources in Saudi’s PIF, which aims at becoming one of the largest and most impactful sovereign wealth funds in the world, to seek foreign investments in critical projects in the country’s oil and gas sector, particularly the Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano gas Pipeline – the 614 km-long natural gas pipeline currently being developed by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation.

“Nigerian officials will see also take advantage of the summit to accelerate discussions on the planned interest of the Saudi oil company, Aramco, to revamp Nigeria’s refineries and new investments in the oil and gas sector.”

Naija News also gathered that President Buhari is expected to perform the Lesser Hajj in Mecca before returning to Nigeria.