By Abubakar Yunusa
Taiwo Oyedele, minister of finance and coordinating minister of the economy, says President Bola Tinubu is focused on mobilising investments in the power, mining, and maritime sectors.
Speaking at the ongoing Africa CEO Forum in Kigali, Rwanda, Oyedele described Tinubu as Nigeria’s “chief marketer”.
He said the president’s bilateral engagements are “very exciting”, focusing on mobilising investments.
“You know one very exciting thing about Mr President is that he is never tired of marketing Nigeria, he is the chief marketer for the country, and so we had several discussions mostly focusing on economic opportunities, how can we mobilise more investment, particularly in the area of power,” the minister said.
“We also had discussions — interesting ones — around mining as well as opportunities to even support the private sector.”
He highlighted pledges in port development, solid minerals mining, and private enterprises, crediting Nigeria’s improved storytelling.
“By telling the story that is credible and you are not just saying what we can do, Mr President has the credential to demonstrate all he has done and his commitment to demonstrate [is] even more compelling going forward,” Oyedele said.
The minister said discussions at the forum positioned Nigeria as a reference point for reform efforts across Africa, particularly around issues of scale, speed and institutional transformation.
“From the Africa CEO Meeting, Nigeria has done a lot of very transformative reforms… still the largest economy by scale/skills by opportunities, by population, seeing that we have done it. It wasn’t meant to be easy, but it was necessary and now we are on that track towards winning,” he said.
Oyedele added that conversations at the forum focused on moving beyond rhetoric to execution, tackling finance for value addition, labour-intensive growth in agriculture, manufacturing, and technology, to lift Africans from poverty.
