Ooni hosts Kazakhstan delegation, says FG’s reforms yielding success

The Ooni of Ife, Oba Enitan Adeyeye Ogunwusi, has said that Nigeria’s capital market has been repositioned for better foreign investment inflow through the closing of the arbitrage between the parallel market and the official market.

Oba Ogunwusi made this disclosure in Abuja while hosting a 30-man delegation from the Republic of Kazakhstan, comprising business gladiators and top government functionaries, led by the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Alibek Kuantyrov.

A statement by the Ooni’s Director of Media and Public Affairs, Moses Olafare, on Monday said that the monarch commended President Bola Tinubu, stating that the hardship resulting from his bold economic reforms was gradually giving way and yielding fruits for Nigerians.

The statement quoted the Ooni as saying, “We want to send a message on behalf of the private sector and the traditional institution of this country that we are getting there gradually as a nation. For the first time in 20 years, the arbitrage between the parallel market and the official market has been closed completely.

“We all know the challenges of our dear country. I will give a simple example of a plane at the highest altitude dropping. Any casualty can come up in that process. But we thank God Almighty that things are normalizing on a gradual basis in our country. These are all the fruits of the great things we are seeing as a nation now.

“It is quite evident that now our country is investor-friendly. Our capital market is repositioned for a better inflow of foreign investment. Also, many Nigerian entrepreneurs that are here are looking forward to connecting with their associates from Kazakhstan as well.”

As the Chairman of the Nigeria-Kazakhstan Business Council, Oba Ogunwusi also noted that last year’s meeting between Tinubu and his Kazakhstan counterpart birthed the current bilateral relationship between the two countries.

Also at the event, Nigeria’s Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Abubakar Kyari, lauded the Ooni for his leadership of the traditional institution in Nigeria, confirming an earlier media report that food prices in the country had dropped by 40 per cent.

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“Your Majesty, this is a great initiative. You have shown that the traditional institutions in Nigeria can easily complement government efforts.

“I believe you are all aware of what is going on in the commodity markets now. We have people out there surveying markets in the country. I have not even seen some of my staff for the past two weeks.

“They’re monitoring and giving us real-time, day-to-day prices of foodstuff, and we have seen how it crashed within the last month by 40 per cent. However, we are also pleading with food processors to pass down those benefits of the crash to Nigerian citizens,” the statement said.