President Buhari accompanied by close personal aides head to Saudi Arabia to perform Umrah and attend Future Investment Initiative

President Buhari will depart Abuja on Monday, October 28th for Riyadh, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, to attend the third edition of the Future Investment Initiative (FII) organized by Saudi’s Public Investment Fund (PIF). Under the theme, ‘‘What’s Next for Global Business?”, the event, which holds from October 29-31, will focus on three key pillars: Sustainable Future, Technology for Good and Advanced Society. The three-day event will be held under the patronage of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Salman bin Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia and chaired by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, deputy premier, chairman of the Council of Economic and Development Affairs and PIF. The Nigerian delegation will leverage on the resources in Saudi’s PIF, which aims at becoming one of the largest and most impactful sovereign wealth funds in the world, to seek foreign investments in critical projects in the country’s oil and gas sector, particularly the Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano (AKK) gas Pipeline – the 614 km-long natural gas pipeline currently being developed by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation. Nigerian officials will see also take advantage of the summit to accelerate discussions on the planned interest of the Saudi oil company, Aramco, to revamp Nigeria’s refineries and new investments in the oil and gas sector.The President will be accompanied by Governor Babagana Zulum of Borno State, Governor Abubakar Bagudu of Kebbi State and Governor Aminu Bello Masari of Katsina State.Also on the entourage are, Minister of State, Foreign Affairs, Zubairu Dada, Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Niyi Adebayo, Minister of State, Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, Minister of Communications, Ibrahim Pantami, the National Security Adviser, Major General Babagana Monguno (rtd), Director-General, National Intelligence Agency, Ambassador Ahmed Rufa’i Abubakar, and the Group Managing Director, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mele Kolo Kyari.After the investors’ conference in Riyadh, President Buhari will proceed to Makkah, accompanied by close personal aides, to perform the Umrah (lesser pilgrimage) before returning to Abuja.