New York : US President Donald Trump has emphasized in a meeting with African leaders the “business potential” of their continent, noting that he knows that because “so many” of his friends go there “to get rich”.

“Africa has tremendous business potential,” Trump said in his address on Wednesday during a working luncheon in New York with the leaders of Uganda, South Africa, Ivory Coast, Guinea, Namibia, Nigeria, Senegal, Ghana and Ethiopia, Efe news reported.

“I have so many friends going to your countries trying to get rich, I congratulate you. They are spending a lot of money. But it does, it has tremendous business potential,” he added.

Trump also created controversy on Twitter when he mistakenly pronounced Namibia as “Nambia” during his speech as he was emphasizing that country’s healthcare system, which he said is becoming more self-sufficient.

The President also announced that soon the US United Nations ambassador, Nikki Haley, will travel to Africa to discuss conflict resolution and prevention and, in particular, the violence in South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Trump also emphasized Washington’s collaboration with African nations to fight terrorism, saying that he was “proud to work with you to eradicate terrorist safe havens, to cut off their finances and to discredit their depraved ideology, and a number of you have told me.”

After the luncheon, Trump also met with Jordan’s King Abdullah II, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, British Prime Minister Theresa May and Egyptian leader Abdel Fatah el-Sisi.

—IANS