The Minister of Finance, Wale Edun, on Sunday, said more 
local jobs are expected in the coming year as a result of Saudi Arabia’s drive to ramp up investment in key sectors of the economy.
Edun said this follows Saudi Arabia’s SALIC International Investment Company’s acquisition of a 35.43 per cent stake in Olam Agri Holdings for $1.2bn.
The Coordinating Minister of the Economy affirmed this after meeting President Bola Tinubu at his Ikoyi home in Lagos.
The deal, which closed on December 23, 2024, values Olam Agri Holdings at $3.5bn.
Olam Group will retain a majority stake of 64.57 per cent in the agricultural unit in a deal first announced in March 2022.
Edun, accompanied by his counterpart in the Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning, Atiku Bagudu, had led a delegation to Saudi Arabia to follow up on various investment pledges made to Nigeria by Saudi businesses in the past few visits.
He said this visit resulted in a $1.2bn investment by the Saudi Agricultural Livestock Investment Company in Olam.
This investment, he argued, is expected to increase FOREX inflow, and jobs and boost the economy.
Edun explained, “I’d say what we have brought back is investment. What we have brought back is foreign exchange. We have brought jobs for Nigerians.
“If you look at the demographics of Saudi Arabia, to the extent that they are investing abroad, they are not going to be exporting their people. They’re not like some of the other big, populous countries of Asia.
“So clearly, where they invest is in jobs for Nigerians. So that’s the simplest way I would put it. Of course, the Olam transaction was a long time in the works. You all know that the Saudi Agricultural Livestock Investment Company has, just around December 23, increased its investment in Olam by a $1.2bn additional investment.
“So it is that type of transaction that Mr president has taken the steps of stabilising the Nigerian macroeconomic environment to encourage such and to attract such and of course, that is an example of the success of the strategy followed by Mr President.”
He said the delegation was in the Middle East to “follow up on the economic diplomacy, the incisive, robust and exhaustive economic diplomacy that Mr President has carried out around the world.”
