Antony Blinken, the US Secretary of State, has spoken to journalists after his meeting with President Bola Tinubu at Aso Villa and said that America was interested in investing in Nigeria’s economy.
The purpose of Blinken’s trip is to study the potential for cooperation and investment in technology among other sectors.
Additionally, he emphasized Nigeria’s role as a main partner with Africa and America given its economic strength and influence. The US had been endorsing greater African representation in United Nations decision making processes due to changing global orientations.
Nonetheless, Blinken called on Nigeria to address its business climate prior to considering any improvement in bilateral relations. He commended Tinubu for rebuilding foreign investors’ confidence in Nigerian economy.
Despite Nigeria’s challenges, he noted that both the U.S. government and private sector were very much interested in exploring country’s opportunities as well as seeking contact with Africa.
His words were that huge investments are being made by American firms who partner local stakeholders with an objective of development especially within the health S sector.V
The president noted that important capital spending on development in the health sector was being made by American companies partnering with local actors.
Part of his statement said, “The US is dedicated to forging true partnerships on the continent that address our common problems and help our people achieve their potential.”
“In this regard, Nigeria has been quite involved in this effort. This includes some of the following issues:
“We are developing blue economy, environmental protection and exchanging science and technology knowledge through a new partnership for learning cooperation.”
He quotes the President saying during a United Nations General Assembly address last September that ‘Africa no less than, holds the key to the future.’
“It’s not a hidden fact that there still remain some long term challenges which must be overcome if we want realize it’s full potential.
“These should all move towards transformation through corruption elimination, promoting more repatriation inflows from foreign companies leading to transformative direct investment
“I do know that President Tinubu is taking these challenges seriously and welcome his very brave economic reforms aimed at currency unification as well as ending fuel subsidy..
“Moreover, in the short term, these reforms were perceived to have brought problems to disadvantaged communities.
“I talked about some of the ways that America can help Nigerians while they are working on these inevitable reforms and take care of those who may be affected temporarily again.”
“During the past 5 years we have invested $8.3 billion dollars in HIV TB prevention, care and treatment and building up public health system which has reached millions of Nigerians and this effort will continue.
“Also our partnership is strengthening Nigerian institutions for innovation and leadership in regional public health response.
“We are driving climate action as partners within a global coalition. We work together with other thirty Atlantic countries to support the development and use of artificial intelligence for good purposes.”
Because one of the things we learned from these partnerships is that it’s as much benefitting us as any place or any company we invest with.”