Vice President Shettima represents Nigeria at 15th BRIC summit in South Africa

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

The VP will join other business and political leaders across the world at the summit scheduled for August 22 to 24.

In a statement, the Director Information, Office of the Vice President, Olusola Abiola said other notable leaders such as South African President, Cyril Ramaphosa; President Xi Jinping of China; Brazil’s President, Luiz Lula da Silva and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi are expected to attend the event.

VP Shettima was accompanied by some senior government officials and some 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 summit is 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,” the statement read.

The Vice President is expected back in Nigeria at the end of the week.

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

The BRICS group accounts for more than 42% of the world population, 30% of the world’s territory, 23% of the global economy and 18% 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.