December 21, 2022

Mr. Tein Jack-Rich, the President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Belema Oil, has advocated the admission of Nigeria into the G20 economic group.

Jack-Rich made the appeal in a statement on Wednesday while highlighting the outcome of a U.S.-Africa Leaders’ Summit which held in Washington DC on Dec. 15.

The frontline Nigerian politician and philanthropist noted that the inclusion of Nigeria and the African Union into the G20 would be a milestone in global economic acceleration.

He urged Africans in the Diaspora to work towards achieving this goal.

Jack-Rich said Africa will be a force to reckon with if Pacific and Caribbean countries are also integrated into the continent.

“Nigeria is the heartbeat of Africa when you talk about trade. We need to integrate the diaspora countries, and I haven’t heard anyone talk about the pacific countries.

“We have about 15 countries there, and we have 16 countries in the Caribbean, so it’s important to integrate these two diaspora countries with the African continent.

“As part of African continent free trade area, it is important to recognise the potential these two diaspora countries actually have so that we can have a strong bloc. That makes Africa about 85 countries.

“Today Africa is about 30 per cent of global GDP, that is about two and half trillion dollars, that is not strong for us,” he said.

Jack-Rich, however, said Africa needed the right collaboration to achieve the goal.

He said admitting Africa into the G-20 would help the continent a lot and would go a long way in ensuring its technological advancement.

“Another appeal I want to make is to see that Nigeria is also part of G20. It is going to go a long way because Nigeria is about 19.3 per cent of Africa’s total GDP and that is a strong economy.

“I am in the energy business; one thing we need right now is the technological collaboration from the G-7 point of view and we can actually be employed into enabling Africa to build the right economic gateway.

“As we talk about Climate Change today, one thing you can recognise is, in spite of the fact that Africa only admits about three per cent of global greenhouse gas.

“We have a youth population that needs to be engaged and to engage the population, we need jobs, and to create that, we need industries,” Jack-Rich said.

Speaking earlier, an American businessman, Arnold Donald, admitted that Africa was a fertile ground for any business to thrive.

Donald said it was encouraging that in spite of the current global economic crises, businesses globally were investing in Africa.

He said the U.S.-Africa Leaders’ Summit creates a window for partnerships and collaborations between the public and private sector, and subsequently accelerates economic growth. (NAN)