As the price of crude oil, Nigeria’s major export, continues to disappoint in the international market, President Mohammadu Buhari has promised that Nigeria will be returning to agriculture and mining to cushion its effect on the economy.
President Buhari lamented that the country had almost entirely depended on oil, stressing that current harsh economic realities were an indication that the economy needed urgent diversification.
While speaking at a meeting with leading members of the Council of Saudi Arabia’s Chambers of Commerce and Industry late Tuesday in Riyadh, he said that his administration would welcome greater foreign investment in support of its efforts to rapidly diversify the Nigerian economy.
Apart from oil, he stated that Nigeria was gifted with arable lands and mineral resources that were waiting to be tapped, urging the businessmen to take advantage of the opportunity.
“With the downturn in the global prices of oil, we now have to prospect our solid minerals. We have to return to agriculture. Mining and agriculture are our hopes now. We will welcome investments in these areas. We will appreciate an in-flow of more resources and expertise to help us achieve our objective of economic diversification,” the President said.
In a related development, the governors of Osun, Ogun, Katsina, Borno, another d Zamfara states, who were part of the President’s delegation, took turns to address the Saudi Arabian businessmen on investment possibilities in their states, assuring them of good returns.
The Chairman of the Council of the Saudi Arabian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Dr Abdulrahman Al Zamil said that agriculture was a very important area of investment for its members, adding that they were already in Brazil, the United States of America and Sudan, “where we have huge farms.”
Declaring that they were willing to invest in Nigeria, Dr Abdulrahman Al Zamil said that the Saudis were the leading investors in Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Kenya and Ethiopia.
