The newly appointed ministers in Nigeria have pledged their dedication to advancing President Bola Tinubu’s “Renewed Hope” agenda, a strategic vision aimed at revitalising the nation’s economy, enhancing security, and driving sustainable development.
The new Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu, expressed her full commitment to key into the foreign policy thrust of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu saying she will advance the core principles of development, democracy, demography, and diaspora across Africa and the world.
Ojukwu stated this on Monday at the Council Chambers while speaking to State House Correspondents on her readiness to serve and enhance the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Tinubu.
She said the administration of President Tinubu intends to leverage the creative potential and huge capital skills of the increasing Nigerian youth population both within and across the globe.
“We intend in this administration to leverage on the creative potentials, on the skills on the huge capital that these young people have to bring to the country, and of course the Diaspora.
“I am fully committed to keying into the foreign policy thrust of this government. The President has actually made things much easier by building the foreign policy thrust of his administration. The 4Ds comprise of democracy, strengthening democratic institutions all over Africa, principally,” she said.
Mrs Ojukwu also spoke of Nigeria’s large Diaspora community, which remits approximately $22 billion annually.
She emphasized the importance of partnering with the diaspora to foster international strategic partnerships and to leverage their contributions to strengthen Nigeria’s global financial standing.
“We intend in this administration to leverage on the creative potentials, on the skills on the huge capital that these young people have to bring to the country, and of course the Diaspora.
“We have a Diaspora that remits annually, $22 billion, we have a Diaspora that is doing so well all over the world, and if we can partner with them and ensure that we bring them into the administration’s initiatives and use them also to forge strategic partnerships with financial institutions all over the world, that will in no small way enhance the workings on the service delivery for the Foreign Minister.
“Development; leveraging on the African Continental Free Trade Area to encourage and harness our economic potentials and of course, looking at the demography, we have a huge youth population Nigeria. 70% of the population is under the age of 43, so that’s a huge demographic,” she added.
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Ojukwu added that she would ensure that consular services abroad are much more effective.
“And of course, ensuring that consular services broad are much more effective, and our citizens abroad are much happier with what they are receiving, and get that sense that their government truly cares for their welfare,” she said.
Minister of Trade and Investment, Jumoke Oduwole, stressed the need to boost the AfCFTA for Nigerian businesses and ensure that both domestic and foreign investments are retained.
“The most important thing with the trade agreement is to make sure that we go after optimizing the AfCFTA for Nigerian businesses, which means pragmatically supporting them at this time to export their products we need productive jobs that deliver value for Nigerians,” she emphasised.
She also highlighted the importance of aligning trade agendas with monetary and fiscal policies.
“This is significant and imperative; we will prioritize these in the short term.
“It’s really important that we retain domestic investment and aggressively attract new investment. That means tracking all the investments Mr. President, as chief investment officer of this economy, has gone after in the last 17 months, and making sure that the businesses, we’ve already started engaging with our peerless business champions, the businesses at the higher level and the medium level and at the micro level, that each of them at those specific cadres, are optimized to make it progressively easier,” she stated.
Oduwole emphasised the significance and imperative of synergizing the trade agenda of President Tinubu’s administration to ensure it is in tandem with monetary and fiscal policies.
“I will make is that this is significant and imperative to make sure that the trade agenda is synced with monetary and fiscal policies, and those are the things that we’ll be prioritizing in the short term,” Oduwole added.
Both ministers’ appointments are part of a broader cabinet reshuffle aimed at bolstering President Tinubu’s administration and tackling economic challenges facing the country.
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