Jonathan leaves for Switzerland, Ethiopia today

Category: News Published on Monday, 21 January 2013 06:00

President Goodluck Jonathan will today embark on a working visits to Switzerland and Ethiopia, presidential spokesman Reuben Abati has disclosed.

Abati, in a statement issued in Abuja yesterday, said the president’s engagements in Geneva and Davos, Switzerland, would be devoted to drawing the attention of more members of the international business finance community to Nigeria’s immense investment potential.

The statement added that Jonathan would meet with Eminent Persons Group on Nigeria’s Transformation Agenda in Geneva on Tuesday. He would thereafter lead a drive to attract greater foreign expertise and capital to boost the Federal Government’s efforts to modernise and transform Nigeria’s agricultural sector.

Members of the group included Mr Bill Gates, the former Secretary-General of the United Nations, Dr Kofi Annan, the President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development, Dr Kanayo Nwanze.

Others were the President of the Africa Development Bank, Mr Donald Kaberuka and the Chairman of the Del Monte Produce Group, Mr Mohammed Abu-Ghazaleh.

“The President will at a special session of the annual meeting of the world’s leading businessmen and industrialists at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Wednesday also promote new incentives for investment in Nigeria’s agricultural sector,” the statement said.

It further stated that the President would be accompanied by the Minister of Agriculture, Dr Adewunmi Adesina, the Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.

Also in the entourage were the Minister of National Planning, Dr Shamsudeen Usman and the Minister of Trade and Investment, Dr Olusegun Aganga, at the Business Interactive Group session.

Others expected at the meeting are the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs Diezani Allison-Madueke, and the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Malam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi.

Jonathan, according to the statement, would leave Switzerland on Friday for the African Union Summit of Heads of State and Government in Addis Ababa.