Obasanjo, Soludo, Awolowo, Others For DRC-Nigeria Business Summit

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has arrived in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) for the meeting of the DRC/Nigeria Business Council scheduled to start today Friday in the country’s capital of Kinshasa.

Obasanjo left Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital enroute Lagos at the early hours of Thursday, for the two-hour chartered flight to Kinshasa with the Executive Secretary, National Action Committee on the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and the former executive director/chief executive officer of the Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC) between 2013 and 2022, Olusegun Awolowo.

A statement issued in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital and signed by Obasanjo’s Special Assistant on Media, Kehinde Akinyemi indicated that the Anambra State governor, Prof. Charles Soludo and a business mogul cum renowned industrialist in DRC Congo, Wale Adeosun joined the former President on the trip.

On ground ahead of the summit were the President of the Council and former Director General of the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Dr. Nteranya Sanginga, Mr. Jimi Lawal and representative of Oyo State governor, Seyi Makinde, Dr. Debo Akande.

Others expected to join at the meeting are the Kaduna State Governor and Deputy President of the DRC/Nigeria Business Council, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, Aliko Dangote of the Dangote Group, Mrs Stella Okoli of Emzor Paracetamol among others.

At the last meeting held in Lagos in December, the country’s outgoing President, President Muhammadu Buhari expressed satisfaction with the establishment of the Council, which he stressed would further boost the trade relations between the two countries.

The Deputy Secretary, DRC-NIGERIA Business Council, Amb. Leke Adebiyi hinted that no fewer than 30 prospective investors drawn from Health, Education, Agriculture, Communications, Power and Finance sectors are to meet with their DRC counterparts.