Foreign News
Mark Zuckerberg; Bill Gates Others to Attend Nigeria Investment Forum in New York
By Mathew Dadiya, Abuja
The Nigerian government, in collaboration with the Africa Business Roundtable, in a bid to further open up the country’s economy to international capital and attract foreign investment, organize the second edition of the Nigeria International Economic Partnership Forum (NIEPF), a global economic investment platform in New York, the United States of America (USA).
Some of the key participants include the Chief Executive Officer of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg; Bill Gates, John Kerry, US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate; Dr.
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Director General of the World Trade Organisation, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, President of the African Development Bank, and Amina J. Mohammed, Deputy Secretary General of the United Nations to mention but a few.The high-level event is scheduled for Thursday, September 22, 2022, on the sidelines of the 77th United Nations General Assembly taking place in America.
Holding alongside the annual global gathering, the NIEPF is expected to draw the presence of world leaders in politics, economy, media as well as Civil Society Oganisations and international media to focus on the vast economic potentials of Nigeria and Africa’s leading economy.
Most significantly, President Muhammadu Buhari will deliver the keynote address at the event and will also host a High-Level Presidential Session with fellow Presidents and Heads of delegations on Issues That Need Joint Action for African Countries on the Development Drive such as the Post COVID-19 recovery and financing priorities; Africa’s Investment Climate and Market as well as De-risking the Continent.
The NIEPF will bring together top Nigerian government functionaries as well as renowned and highly respected global public and private sector players rubbing minds on Nigeria’s Economic Outlook, focusing on Nigeria in The Global Economy; and International Partnership for Nigeria on The Development Drive.
There will be cluster thematic sessions on: Growing Nigeria’s Agriculture for Food Security and Access to Export Market with special focus on Impact of the Russia-Ukraine War which presents opportunities for G7/G20-Nigeria Partnerships in Agriculture; Scaling Up International Resources for Financing Education in Africa with emphasis on Making facilities to Link Government, Deal Sponsors and International Pools of Capital in Education; and Nigeria’s Oil and Gas Sector: Reforms, Results and the Road focusing on Scaling Up Investment into the Gas Market—Plants, Parks, Cylinders, Reinjection.
Other issues slated for discussion include: Scaling Up International Resources for Healthcare in Africa bordering on: Upgrading and expanding Nigeria’s Healthcare Infrastructure towards making Nigeria the “healthcare hub” for Africa; Climate Change and Paths to Clean Environment with emphasis on Paths to Clean Economy, Clean Energy and Clean Development.
As well as Financing Nigeria’s Infrastructure with emphasis on Developing infrastructures such as Farm to market corridor, Farm to ports corridor, Export transport corridor, Railway network, Road network upgrade and expansion, Airport upgrade, including dedicated airports for exports, Power generation, transmission and distribution.
Speakers and panelists at the event include Aliko Dangote, President of Dangote Group; Bill Gates, Co-Founder of Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; Satya Nadella, Chairman Business Council of the United States and Chief Executive Officer Microsoft Corp, Antony Blinken, Secretary of State of the United States, Florie Liser, President of the Corporate Council on Africa, and Members of the Business Council of International Understanding, Geoffrey Onyeama, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Zainab Shamsuna Ahmed, Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, John Kerry, US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate; and Abdul Samad Rabiu, Executive Chairman of BUA Group, who is also the President of the France-Nigeria Business Council.
Others are Mark Zuckerberg, Chief Executive Officer of Facebook, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Director General of the World Trade Organisation, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, President of the African Development Bank and Amina J. Mohammed, Deputy Secretary General of the United Nations to mention but a few.
Brad Smith, the president of technology giant Microsoft has issued a stark warning regarding foreign attempts to influence the U.S. presidential election in November.
“The most perilous moment will come, I think, 48 hours before the election,” Smith told a U.S. Senate hearing on Wednesday.
“That’s the lesson to be learned from, say, the Slovakian election last fall,” he added.
Smith said two days ahead of the parliamentary election vote in the European country “a Russian group” released and pushed, including by amplifying the story with a top Russian official, a deep fake audio purporting to reveal a vote-stealing plot.
“The Russian government is very capable, very sophisticated, not just in technology but in social science,” Smith said.
The Microsoft boss stressed that “there are real and serious threats,” including in the upcoming U.S. presidential election set to take place on Nov. 5.
The race for the White House may be between Republican candidate Donald Trump and the Democrats’ Kamala Harris, “but this is also becoming an election of Iran versus Trump and Russia versus Harris,” the Microsoft boss said.
“It is an election where Russia, Iran, and China are united with the common interest in discrediting democracy in the eyes of our voters,” Smith warned.
Just a few days ago, U.S. authorities exposed a Russian-sponsored campaign that deployed right-wing influencers.
Accounts masquerading as the websites of news outlets like conservative channel Fox News and newspaper The Washington Post posted fake stories.
On Wednesday, a Russian group published a video of Harris, manipulated with the help of artificial intelligence, in which words were put into her mouth that she never said, said Smith.
The administration in Washington has accused Russia of interfering in the U.S. presidential election campaign.
Similar accusations had been made in previous elections.
Smith testified alongside Meta’s Nick Clegg and Kent Walker, president and chief legal officer for Google’s Alphabet. (dpa/NAN)
Six staff members with the UN agency that assists Palestine refugees (UNRWA) were killed in Gaza on Wednesday when two Israeli airstrikes hit a school-turned-shelter and its surroundings.“This is the highest death toll among our staff in a single incident,” UNRWA said in a post on the social media platform, X.
At least 34 people were killed in the strikes, according to media reports. UNRWA said the shelter manager and other team members were among the victims. UN Secretary-General António Guterres deplored the bloodshed.“What’s happening in Gaza is totally unacceptable,” he wrote on X.“These dramatic violations of international humanitarian law need to stop now.”The UNRWA school in Nuseirat, located in the Middle Area of the Gaza Strip, was sheltering around 12,000 displaced people, mainly women and children.This marked the fifth time that it had been hit since the conflict began 11 months ago.Earlier on Wednesday the UN said the site had been previously deconflicted with the Israeli forces.UNRWA called on all parties to the conflict to never use schools or the areas around them for military or fighting purposes.“No one is safe in Gaza. No one is spared. Schools and other civilian infrastructure must be protected at all times, they are not a target,” the tweet said.UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini lamented the “endless and senseless killing, day after day” in Gaza.Writing on X, he said at least 220 agency staff have lost their lives since the war began.“Humanitarian staff, premises and operations have been blatantly and unabatedly disregarded since the beginning of the war,” he said.He warned that “the longer impunity prevails, the more international humanitarian law and the Geneva conventions will become irrelevant.”In a related development, the UN reported that health workers continue efforts to vaccinate young children in northern Gaza against polio, part of a wider campaign to defeat the disease, which can cause paralysis.More than 81,600 boys and girls were vaccinated as of Tuesday, according to preliminary data from the World Health Organisation (WHO).Polio was detected in Gaza in June and UN agencies and partners launched a two-round campaign this month to provide over 640,000 children with two doses of novel oral polio vaccine type 2.So far, nearly 528,000 children have been reached in the first round. (NAN)
An Israeli drone on Tuesday fired several missiles at a flat in a five-story building in the market town of Nabatieh in southern Lebanon.Eight people were injured, according to an initial toll announced by the Lebanese Health Ministry.It was not immediately clear whether there were any Hezbollah members were in the targeted building.
Earlier, an Israeli drone assassinated a Hezbollah fighter riding a motorbike on the Bab Mareaa-Saghbine road in Western Bekaa and wounded two passersby. Hezbollah said that one of its fighters, Mohammad Qassem al-Shaer, was killed but did not specify where and when he was killed.The Israeli army confirmed it “struck and eliminated” the terrorist Mohammad Qassem al-Shaer, who served as a Hezbollah Radwan Force commander, in the area of Qaraoun,It added that the Israeli artillery struck the areas of Sawaneh and Aita al-Shaab.Since the war began between Israel and the Palestinian militant organisation Hamas in Gaza last October, there have been clashes between the Israeli army and the pro-Iranian Hezbollah in Lebanon in the border area.There have been casualties on both sides, most of them members of Hezbollah, which says it is acting in solidarity with Hamas. (dpa/NAN)
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