Saudi Arabia to Invest $25 billion in Africa as Nigeria Sees ‘Immediate’ Inflows

Saudi Arabia will invest about $25 billion in Africa by the end of the decade as part of its Vision 2030 plan to overhaul its economy, Saudi Press Agency reports.

This comes as Nigeria says it sees “immediate” multi-billion-dollar investment flows from Saudi Arabia after it signed an agreement with the kingdom following the first Saudi-Africa Summit which started on Friday.

More than 50 deals and preliminary agreements were signed during the summit in various fields including tourism, energy, finance, mining and logistics, SPA said.

Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy sealed deals with Saudi Arabia during the summit, that included agriculture, oil and gas, energy, telecommunications and technologies sectors.

The Nigerian government said the agreements include channeling Saudi Arabian investments to the West African country’s oil refineries to revamp them, and to reestablish a Nigeria- Saudi Arabia Business Council.

Africa’s Global Bank, United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc, and Saudi Export-Import Bank (Saudi EXIM), a premier export credit agency in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, also announced a partnership aimed at strengthening business growth and enhancing economic cooperation between their economies.

To this end, both institutions signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on November 9, 2023, to foster economic cooperation and trade relations between the two entities.

Leaders who attended the summit included presidents and prime ministers with each calling calling for more Saudi investments and economic ties at both bilateral and multilateral levels.

Saudi exports to the continent worth $10 billion will be financed and insured through 2030, and the Saudi Fund for Development will finance development projects worth about $5 billion in the same time frame, the Saudi News Agency added.

Earlier, the oil rich middle eastern country said on Saturday it is finalizing investment plans within a week that will see the officials of the kingdom closing several deals when they visit Nigeria by the end of December.

“We know you are ready for business, so we do not want to come to Nigeria for any exploratory discussion. We are coming for implementation, it’s an action visit. It will be to sign and begin delivery on all agreements,” Saudi Kahlid El-Falih, Arabia’s trade and investment minister told Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu during the business round-table.

Get More of our proprietary news and analysis as MoneyCentral is now on WhatsApp Channels  Follow the MoneyCentral Nigeria channel on WhatsApp: Click here!