By Fortune Abang
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has reaffirmed Nigeria’s position towards benefiting from various sectors of global economy during the 2025 G20 Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Amb. Bolaji Akinremi, Director of Reform and Foreign Service Innovation, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday in Abuja.
He spoke against backdrop of the expectations for the Summit, given that Nigeria is a member of the African Union (AU), and the event would be hosted for the first time in Africa.
According to him, the G20 agenda will impact positively on the socioeconomic, cultural, and humanitarian development of African continent.
Bolaji said: “The Johannesburg G20 Summit will be the first of its kind to be held on the African soil, and that has great significance for us as Africans.
“Our expectation is that it is going to be very successful and that it is going to bring lots of hopes and fulfilment to Africa.
“Nigeria gained entrance and recognition at the same time with the AU into G20 in New Delhi, and since then, they have been members of the G20.
“Nigeria deserves and desires to be member on its own, not just a guest country or on the platform of the AU, being the largest economy in Africa.
“So, we want to see how that works out in the coming years.”
He stressed that Nigeria’s preparation to host one of the pre-summit meetings in Abuja on Monday proved the country’s readiness to participate fully in the forthcoming summit.
This, according to him, means Nigerians should expect the issue of debt sustainability and reduction of debt burden across Africa would be discussed.
He said expected discussion during the summit would be climate change and climate financing, saying such would provide stronger platform for Africa Continental Free Trade Area to grow economically.
“Nigeria will be very strong on this, we must ensure we take advantage of it. Other G20 countries are also going to come up with different programmes that is going to bring us meaningful development.
“So, our expectation (at the summit is) to harness the potential and opportunities we have seen before now, and Nigeria has been preparing for this.
“There will be a pre-summit meeting here in Nigeria and all of these are going to involve the inter-ministerial, private sector and the public sector. So, we will hopefully come home with good results.
“We expect our involvement in G20 will become stronger and more focused, to identify areas we can champion, in terms of collaboration with other countries,” he added.
He revealed that Nigeria and South Africa already have youth dialogue and that hosting of the G20 summit on the African soil would bolster networking with other countries.
He described G20 as 20-powerful and rich countries of the world that determine direction of global economies, in terms of financing, development and industrialisation.
“A lot of discussions at the summit will focus on sustainability of debt ratio and this should give relief to some African countries, and to us too, because our debt profile is also increasing.”
He advised the private sector operators in Nigeria to cash in on the President Bola Tinubu’s policies to grow limitless business environment under the auspices of the G20 summit.
“We are all keying behind President Tinubu and looking forward to a wonderful outcome and participation in the G20 in Johannesburg,” Bolaji said.(NAN) (http://www.nannews.ng)
Edited by Ismail Abdulaziz
