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ABUJA - Nigerian President Bola Tinubu will meet executives of Microsoft, Meta and Exxon Mobil while he is in New York next week for the United Nations General Assembly, his spokesperson said on Friday.
The Nigerian leader will discuss with Microsoft President Brad Smith how the country's small businesses can have access to the internet to carry out transactions quickly, spokesperson Ajuri Ngelale said in a statement. Tinubu will meet Nick Clegg, president of Global Affairs for Meta technologies, and the global CEOs of General Electric and Exxon Mobil, the statement said.
Tinubu is scheduled to leave Nigeria on Sunday for the annual gathering of world leaders, which runs from Sept. 18 to Sept. 26.
Tinubu met U.S. President Joe Biden at the G20 summit in India last week after accepting Biden's invitation to meet while they are both attending the General Assembly.
"The president is focused on attracting foreign direct investment, attracting jobs, attracting new tax revenues into the shores of our country," Ngelale's statement said.
"But he's also focused in on making sure that homegrown Nigerian companies have fair and equal access to foreign and international markets."
Ngelale said Tinubu will meet leaders from the United States, Brazil, Algeria, Comoros, South Africa and European Union. He will also meet the prime ministers of the Netherlands and Spain and the King of Jordan, Ngelale said.
Nigeria's new government wants to encourage investments rather than rely on borrowing to create jobs as it tries to revive an economy struggling with record debt, a weak currency, double-digit inflation and skeletal power supplies.
Tinubu has embarked on the boldest reforms in decades, which have been welcomed by investors. However, they have brought additional hardship to Nigerians already dealing with a cost of living crisis. Nigeria's inflation soared to an 18-year high in August.
(Reporting by Felix Onuah; Writing by Chijioke Ohuocha; editing by Grant McCool)