President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday offered Qatari investors opportunities in the various sectors of the economy including petroleum, power, aviation, agriculture, railways, and many others.
These were the high points of discussions with President Muhammadu Buhari when he received the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-thani, at State House, Abuja.
The Emir is leading a delegation of senior government officials and business executives from the Gulf state, on a visit to Nigeria.
Qatar which recently pulled out of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to concentrate on gas production, is today the world’s biggest exporter of liquefied natural gas.
The President also appealed to the Emir on the need to support the quest to recharge Lake Chad with water from the Congo Basin, so as to grant succour to the more than 30 million people adversely affected by the shrinkage of the lake over the years.
“We invite you to invest in our refineries, pipelines, power sector, aviation, agriculture, education, and many others, so that you can have your management here to oversee the investment. We need your expertise,” President Buhari said.
On the receding Lake Chad, he said of the over 30 million people affected, more than half were in Nigeria. He pointed out that this had contributed greatly to illegal migration, as innumerable youths dare the Sahara Desert and the Mediterranean Sea, in order to find safer shores in Europe, with a large number of them dying in the process.
“We need help with the recharge of Lake Chad, as it is not a project that the concerned countries can handle alone,” President Buhari said, adding: “Recharging the lake will bring back fishing, farming, animal husbandry, and the youths won’t be attracted by insurgency or illegal migration. We want Qatar to be involved because of the humanitarian nature of the endeavour.”
Sheikh Hamad Al-thani said he was honoured and happy to be in Nigeria for the first time, stressing it was a reciprocal visit to the one paid to Qatar in 2016 by President Buhari.
“The relationship between our countries is very good. We just have to build on it,” the emir said. “We share a lot of similarities in different areas. We need to enhance bilateral trade and economic cooperation. We are willing to do a lot more with Nigeria, and will continue to work on investment opportunities of mutual benefit,” he added.
The Emir arrived Nigeria on Tuesday and headed straight to the Aso Rock Villa where he held a closed-door meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
The president invited Qatari investors to take advantage of the abundant opportunities in Nigeria and invest in the key areas of energy, agriculture, real estate development, banking and finance.
Qatar had last year, announced its intention to pull out of the OPEC oil producers’ cartel.
The Gulf state, which joined OPEC in 1961, said it would leave the cartel to focus on gas production.
Tony Ailemen, Abuja
