President Muhammadu Buhari says his administration has spent about $9 billion to strengthen investment on power, roads and railway.

Buhari said this on Monday while declaring open the 61st meeting of the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) Commission for Africa (CAF) holding in Abuja.

Represented by Boss Mustapha, secretary of the government of the federation  (SGF), the president said the federal government is making efforts to diversify the economy through agriculture, solid minerals development and tourism.

“We are making steady efforts to diversify the economy through agriculture, solid minerals development and tourism,” he said.

“We are also investing heavily in infrastructure to promote tourism. This administration has injected about US$9 billion to strengthen its investment in power, roads and railway in the past two years alone.

“It may interest you to note that Nigeria is a country with a population of over 180 million people and over 250 ethnic groups, each with a unique story, and these stories are finding expression in our movies, music and many other creative ideas.

“Our music and movies, in particular, have taken the world by storm and, for the creative young talents in our dear country, Nigeria, the best is yet to come.”

The president urged investors to make Nigeria their second home.

“It is on this basis that I call on tourists and investors in the tourism sector to consider Nigeria as their second home,” he said.

“This government has attractive investment incentives for investors in the tourism sector including but not limited to – pioneer status to all major tourism projects, minimum tariff on imported tourism equipment, amusement park equipment and materials for hotel construction and furnishing, dedicated transportation for tour operators and equipment for restaurants not manufactured in Nigeria, minimum duty on casino equipment, work permit for foreign workers with specialized skills within the industry and land at concessionary rate by state governments to tourism investors.”

On his part, Lai Mohammed, minister of information, said infrastructure is critical to the development of the tourism sector.

“On our part, as a country, we are doing everything possible to move the tourism sector into the mainstream of the economy. Realizing that modern infrastructure is critical to tourism development, we are investing heavily in the development of infrastructure. In the last two years alone, we have spent an unprecedented 9 billion US dollars to build roads, standard railways and power,” the minister said.

“The investment is showing, as we have raised our power generation from 2,690 to 7,000MW, while road construction is going on in every of the country’s 36 states.”