President Bola Tinubu has called on Samsung to take advantage of the infrastructure deficit in Nigeria and invest in the country with guaranteed returns on investment.
He made the call on Sunday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, during a meeting with the President and Chief Executive Officer of Samsung, Hong Namkoong, and the Chairman of Samsung Investment Global, Jungwook Kim.
The meeting took place on the margins of the World Economic Forum Special Meeting on Global Collaboration, Growth and Energy for Development.
He noted that Nigeria’s investment environment operates on the principle of “a willing-buyer and willing-seller,” which ensures seamless access to capital for investors both within and outside the country.
President Tinubu said: ”Nigeria is a very huge country with a huge and able population. We have vibrant youths ready to learn and progress. In fact, our young do not wait for us. They go ahead of us in their determination to succeed. We must keep up and provide opportunities for them to excel.
“We have an infrastructure deficit and you can take advantage of that and invest early and deeply in an environment that is absorptive and ready for it. It is modelled after a willing-buyer and willing-seller arrangement. Easy capital in and easy capital out.”
According to a statement by Ajuri Ngelale, Special Adviser to the President (Media & Publicity), the President took time to detail the significant opportunities across sectors for investment within the Renewed Hope Infrastructure Development Fund, which involves the potential utilization of co-finance instruments on critical infrastructure and technology which Samsung is well known to produce.
He also harped on the importance of deepening collaboration in the crude oil, natural gas, renewable energy, engineering, technology and agriculture sectors, emphasizing the potential for vast private sector participation in the establishment of fully embedded, off-grid, cold-chain integration across sub-industries in the agriculture sector to forestall post-harvest losses with mass refrigeration capacity.
”We are ready to discuss and discover one another more. We can benefit so much from a collaborative effort. You have the know-how, and we have the willingness. Seize this opportunity,’’ the President told the Samsung executives.
The statement noted that Samsung Chairman Kim expressed Samsung’s interest in expanding its presence in Nigeria, citing the successes of sister companies already operating in the country while laying out potential new opportunities in Nigeria.
Kim concluded: ”We have built many power stations around the world. We are top of the class in gas-fired power plant construction. We have an ever-increasing portfolio in the production of renewable energy solutions around the world. We can make a lot of progress in Nigeria’s energy sector as well as bring our technology to other key productive sectors.
”Transmission lines and smart grids are areas where we see increasing demand globally. You need infrastructure anywhere you go. We are good at metropolitan rail lines; we are good at bridge construction and any of these types of infrastructure projects, in addition to oil and gas engineering projects. We are looking forward to knowing Nigeria better under your leadership and to seeing how we can penetrate the Nigerian market deeply. This is a great opportunity for us.”
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