In my personal opinion the best guitars to get started are nylon classical models, and yamaha makes some of the best for the money.
A yamaha c40 is a full sized classical nylon string guitar. Because its easier on the fingers, beginners tend to practice more, since they dont experience so much pain (its normal when you start)
if he really gets into it, he wont just have one guitar, but as someone whos been playing and building guitars for decades; regardless of how much you know about guitars and your level of skill... a classic nylon is always nice to have.
Epiphone Songmaker DR-100 Dreadnought Acoustic Guitarthank you dear @meno for providing some valuable insights. Right now I was inclined to buying this guitar for him -
https://www.bajaao.com/products/epiphone-dr-100-dreadnought-acoustic-guitar?variant=32218221006
cheers