Shettima to represent Tinubu at BRICS summit in South Africa

Vice President, Kashim Shettima, will depart Abuja for Johannesburg, South Africa to represent President Bola Tinubu at the 15th BRICS Summit of Heads of State and Government.

The Director Information, Office of the Vice President, Mr Olusola Abiola, made this known in a statement, on Monday in Abuja.

BRICS, is an acronym for Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, is a group of five major emerging and developing economies.

He said Shettima would join other business and political leaders across the world at the Summit scheduled for the Sandton Convention Centre, Johannesburg from Aug. 22 to 24.

Abiola disclosed that notable leaders expected to attend the event include South African President, Cyril Ramaphosa; President Xi Jinping of China; Brazil’s President, Luiz Lula da Silva and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“Seven-Three dignitaries including the Secretary-General of the United Nations, the chairperson of the African Union Commission and President of the New Development Bank have also been invited.”

The director said that the summit was expected to deliberate on issues on trade and investment facilitation, sustainable development, innovation, and global governance reform.

“It will also continue its outreach to Leaders from Africa and the global South; as it focuses on global geopolitics, trade and infrastructure development.

Abiola said that the Vice President is accompanied on the trip by some senior government officials and he is expected back in the country at the end of the week.

It was reported that BRICS group accounts for more than 42 per cent of the world population, 30 per cent of the world’s territory, 23 per cent of the global economy and 18 per cent of global trade.

One of its founding values is shared commitment to restructure the global political, economic and financial architecture to be fair, balanced and representative resting on pillars of multilateralism and international law.