Nigeria's President Bola Tinubu will meet with the leadership of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) this week in Abu Dhabi to discuss bilateral and investment issues. 

Tinubu was expected to hold a meeting with the UAE leadership, his spokesman Ajuri Ngelale said in a statement on Sunday, but did not say who Tinubu would be meeting. The visit would be a stopover after Tinubu’s departure from India where he attended the G20 Summit.    

Ngelale however said the meeting in the UAE would be to address issues discussed recently between Tinubu and the UAE's ambassador in Abuja.     

"The meeting will serve as a follow-up discussion to address specific, salient issues within the bilateral relationship after conversations held during a recent visit by the UAE Ambassador to the President at the State House in Abuja," he said.    

Tinubu last month met with the UAE's ambassador to Nigeria, Salem Saeed Al-Shamsi, and thereafter ordered Nigerian officials to find a quick resolution to a dispute the Gulf state. 

In October last year the UAE stopped giving visas to Nigerians when Dubai's Emirates airline cancelled flights to Africa's largest economy after Nigeria stopped repatriating payments to the Gulf state.    

Tinubu and Al-Shamsi in a joint statement said they had discussed the disagreement. The president said he was prepared to "personally" engage in the matter, while the ambassador said the two sides "were getting somewhere" and any lingering concerns would be resolved.

According to the global airline industry group IATA, Nigeria has withheld revenue worth more than $700 million earned by international carriers operating in the country, including the Emirates. 

The West African country has been facing severe shortages of foreign currency, affecting trade and investment.    

While in the UAE, Tinubu would also discuss investment opportunities in Nigeria, his spokesman said. Nigeria secured investment pledges worth billions of dollars from Indian companies at meeting held on the side-lines of the G20 Summit.

"The President is to address lingering bilateral issues while maximizing the opportunity of the stopover to equally advance his investment promotion objectives with high-level authorities in the public and private sectors of the United Arab Emirates," Ngelale said.

(Editing by Seban Scaria seban.scaria@lseg.com)