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The Kaduna State Governor, Malam El-Rufai have continued to build bridge of friendship across the continent in his effort to attract investors to the state with his recent visit to Guinea President


As part of his committed efforts in building bridge of friendship and widening the economic potentials of his state, the Governor of Kaduna State, Malam Nasir El-Rufai recently paid a visit to the President of Guinea, His Excellency, Alpha Conde.

In his speech during the visit, El-Rufai explained that he was pleased to visit President Conde whom he refers to as “my elder brother”. Briefing the press after his discussion with the President, the governor explained that he learnt a lot about investment from his host particularly in the mining sector. He explained that he have invited President Conde to attend Kaduna State investment Summit scheduled for April 2020 to share with the state his experiences of Guinea especially in the area of mining.

Governor El-Rufai further stated that President Conde is a leading Pan-Africanist who has made great contributions to peace, progress and development in ECOWAS region and Africa in general. According to him, “we are very proud of him especially those of us who are junior politicians that are just learning. We have come here to learn from him. We are very grateful to be invited to visit President Conde and we are very grateful to the people of Guinea for affording us the opportunity to be here. We hope and pray that President Conde will continue to render his services of uniting Africa and bringing peace and progress in the continent. This is something he has dedicated over 50 years of his life in doing and we hope that he will continue to do that”.

The Governor who extended the special greetings of President Buhari and Nigerians to his host and the good people of Guinea was treated to the warm hospitality of the people of Guinea. During the last Investment Summit of the state held in April this year, with the title, “Expanding Investment Frontiers,” the governor had urged investors not to give up on the state but push in funds to make the state greater. While welcoming them at the summit, the governor implored the investors to join him and his government as they seek to make Kaduna great again. According to him, “I will appeal to all of you to continue to have faith in Kaduna and invest more in Kaduna”.

He lamented that since the investment summit started in the state, investments have only come from the foreign sphere and not domestic. “In the last three years, 79% of all the investment that we attracted to Kaduna state are foreign investments; only 21% is domestic. This is both good news and worrying news. “It is good news because it means that foreign investors have taken notice of Kaduna and are coming, but worrying because it means that we are not doing enough to attract domestic investors. “This is one of the reasons why our theme for this year’s conference is partnerships for development, we want to focus more on domestic investors and get more domestic investments into Kaduna,” he said. The governor further stated that higher level of investment into the state will only make Kaduna state bigger as they are already the largest producer of tomatoes, soya beans, maize and ginger in Nigeria.