The Federal Government has said that it is more interested in strategic engagements than participating in the trade expo at the ongoing ninth Tokyo International Conference for African Development in Yokohama, Japan.
This was disclosed in a statement signed by the Special Adviser to the President (Information and Strategy), Bayo Onanuga, on Wednesday, in reaction to the viral photo of an empty booth labelled ‘NIGERIA’ at the ongoing summit.
Some social media users on Wednesday have expressed concern about Nigeria’s unmanned exhibition booth at the TICAD9 despite President Bola Tinubu’s attendance at the summit.
Maintaining that the viral content misrepresented Nigeria’s mission and activities at the conference, Onanuga went on to highlight the activities that the retinue of officials who were on the trip with Tinubu were involved in.
Onanuga said, “While we understand the urge by many social media users to seek clicks with many incorrect posts, we also recognise that the author may have acted out of patriotic concern. But it is a concern inspired by ignorance about Nigeria’s mission at the triennial conference.
The Nigerian delegation to the summit, led by President Tinubu, is laser-focused on its core objectives of achieving tangible outcomes from the scheduled lineup of bilateral and multilateral engagements targeted at driving optimum performance in key sectors of the economy, especially in power, industry and agriculture.
“The Nigerian official delegation working with Corporate Nigeria, represented by some of our leading business leaders, didn’t come to Yokohama and Tokyo to attend any trade expo, designed as an open forum for participating nations.”
He added that while the Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines, and Agriculture was scheduled to host an investment forum on Thursday, the ministers on the trip were busy with bilateral sideline discussions.
“At the same time, President Tinubu will lead meetings with the executives of Toyota Corporation, CFAO, UN-Habitat, UNDP, and the International Finance Corporation. The delegation’s schedule does not include participation in an open forum trade exhibition.
Specifically, the Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, is leading the pre-activation meeting to execute several power projects in Nigeria that are being funded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency. One of the projects is the Lagos-Ogun Power Transmission System Improvement, which is designed to improve the wheeling capacity and grid stability and enable the connection of industrial customers on the corridor. There is also the partnership between the National Power Training Institute and JICA to enhance Vocational Training Delivery for the power sector. The third power project is the Distributed Access Through Renewable Energy Scale-up, for which $190m has been provided.
“The Minister of Power is scheduled to negotiate with notable Original Equipment Manufacturers such as TOSHIBA and HITACHI. The Bank of Industry, led by its Managing Director/Chief Executive, Dr. Supo Olusi, is also in high-level discussions with the Japan International Cooperation Agency and other participating multilateral institutions for its annual global fund syndication,” he asserted.
The TICAD9 Summit, holding under the theme ‘Co-creating Innovative Solutions with Africa’, is underpinned by three plenary sessions, which illustrate established areas of cooperation between the African Union and Japan.
