Emmanuel Thomas, Lagos
August 6, 2015 – The presidency has come out to state in clear terms dividend of President Muhammadu Buhari’s recent visit to United States of America.
The presidency was reacting to the editorial of Daily Pilot which put the estimates of the President’s recent trip to the US at N2.2 billion.
But in a statement, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Garba Shehu said that contrary to the editorial, the trip cost the President less than 10 percent of the total estimate.
He also went ahead to state that cumulatively the President’s visit will accrue at least $13.6 billion in investment into the Nigerian economy.
According to him, some of the more immediate benefits of the President’s trip to the U.S include: the proposed $2.1 billion fund from the World Bank for the re-development of the northeast battered by Boko Haram; $5 billion from US investors in Nigeria’s agriculture sector; $1.5 billion investment in the Nigerian health sector; and another $5 billion investment from the U.S. in our country’s power sector.
“Also, as things stand at the moment, the embargo on the sale of weapons sales to Nigeria is in the process of being removed. The trip to the U.S by President Buhari was definitely very successful and beneficial to Nigeria”, he said.
