Nigerian woman praises Ruto’s leadership in New York street encounter

A Nigerian woman on Monday approached Kenyan President William Ruto on the streets of New York City to praise his administration’s work, The Star reports.

“Your Excellency, we just want to catch you up on video just to thank you for the work you do in Kenya… We Africans are watching and seeing your administration working,” she told Ruto, adding that she was Nigerian and following his leadership closely.

Ruto, smiling, thanked her before continuing his walk to the 81st UN General Assembly session, accompanied by Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi.

Speaking later at the Africa We Build High-Level Roundtable on the sidelines of UNGA, Ruto argued that Africa’s development challenge is not a shortage of capital but restrictive financial rules blocking investment. “Africa is not short of capital.

Our domestic capital pools have surpassed $4 trillion. What stands between these savings and the infrastructure we need are the rules that determine where capital can go,” he said, further questioning why African pension funds favour US Treasuries over local power plants.

Ruto called for reforming Africa’s financial architecture to price risk using the continent’s own data, a shift he said could finally unlock trillions in idle domestic capital for critical infrastructure.