Tinubu off to New York Sunday for UNGA78

With an emphasis on fostering Nigeria’s economic ties and luring Foreign Direct Investments to the nation, President Bola Tinubu will leave Abuja for New York, USA, on Sunday in order to attend the 78th United Nations General Assembly.

When Ajuri Ngelale, Tinubu’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, informed State House Correspondents on the President’s schedule of events prior to the forthcoming UNGA, which would take place September 18–26, 2023, he made this information public.

According to the media assistant, “His Excellency President Bola Tinubu will be departing Abuja for New York on Sunday to attend the United Nations General Assembly of 2023.”

World leaders will discuss and debate solutions to “confront the global polycrisis and discover strategies to accelerate action on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development” during the meeting, according to information on the UN Foundation website.

Ngelale noted that Tinubu “would continue moving very aggressively on his economic development, diplomatic drive, to get foreign direct investment into the country” and cited the President’s trip to New Delhi for the G-20 summit and the ensuing investments brought into Nigeria as examples.

He said that to discuss digital transformation, innovation, and investment in Nigeria, the President will host roundtable discussions with important CEOs of multinational corporations. A few of them are the executives from Microsoft, Meta, General Electric, and Exxon Mobil.

Ngelale stated that Tinubu and Microsoft President Brad Smith would meet to discuss “how we can deepen digital transformation in the country, and how we can expand the digital economic footprint in the country to ensure that our micro and small enterprises will have access to the internet and have access to other smart technologies that will facilitate their ability to transact business quickly and efficiently.”

The session with Sir Nick Clegg, President of Global Affairs at Meta Technologies, “is likely to be a wide-ranging conversation with respect to how we might use emerging advancements like artificial intelligence and certain other applications to impact the way we do business in Nigeria.”

Also waiting for him is Larry Culp Jr., the CEO of General Electric. The Presidential aide stated, “We expect that to be a very key contact,” pointing out GE’s holdings in a variety of industries, including energy, aviation, and automobiles.

Aides to the president commented on Tinubu’s meeting with Exxon Mobil Chief Darren Woods, saying, “We see this as a major opportunity to once again lay out in detail what Nigeria has to offer concerning the implementation of the petroleum industry Act and the fiscal and tax incentives that President Bola Tinubu is putting forward to advance investment in the oil and gas sector, not just in terms of oil, but more so in terms of gas.”

The UNGA, he added, will give the President a platform to advance the causes of Nigeria’s small and medium-sized businesses.

The Nigeria Small and Medium Scale Business Summit, according to Ngelale, is strategically positioned to make sure “that we don’t just look at the huge industry, that we hone in on opportunities being given by Nigerian-owned small and medium scale firms.”

President Tinubu will also debate other important global concerns, like as climate change and the reform of the international banking system. These conversations will take place in addition to economic discussions.

The Presidential aide emphasized that he intended to outline a more equitable global financial system and explain Nigeria’s plan to reach net zero emissions by 2060 in these forums.

He mentioned that Tinubu would attend a number of meetings, such as those on the Sustainable Development Goals and climate ambition.

Further emphasizing economic development diplomacy will be bilateral encounters with foreign leaders.

These engagements, according to the Ngelale, include bilateral meetings on the sidelines with the President of the United States, Joe Biden; Comoros’ Azali Assoumani, the African Union’s Chairman; South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa; Brazil’s Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva; Aljeria’s Abdelmadjid Tebboune; the European Union Commission’s Ursula von der Leyen; the Dutch