By Anthony Kamara.
Lagos, Nigeria | 13 October 2026: – West Africa’s foremost business leaders and financial institutions have reaffirmed their commitment to converting the region’s vast economic potential into bankable investments, competitive industries and jobs, following the second meeting of the West Africa Integration and Investment Summit (WAIIS) Private Sector Advisory Board in Lagos.
Co-chaired by His Excellency Julius Maada Bio, President of the Republic of Sierra Leone, and Tony O. Elumelu, CFR, Chairman of Heirs Holdings, the meeting convened the Board’s members — representing the region’s largest industrial conglomerates, energy and mining companies, and development finance and banking institutions. Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu attended in person, underscoring the host state’s support for the initiative.
The Advisory Board is mandated to place the private sector at the centre of regional integration: identifying investable projects, mobilising African and international capital, and advising governments on the policy actions required to unlock transactions. The meeting focused on the four anchor sectors of the Summit: energy trade and industrialisation; strategic minerals; agribusiness; and digital transformation.
Ahead of the Lagos meeting, President Bio also met in New York with His Excellency Bassirou Diomaye Faye, President of the Republic of Senegal and current Chair of the ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government, to brief him on WAIIS preparations and reaffirm the Summit’s alignment with ECOWAS priorities on regional integration, investment and private‑sector mobilisation.
A single market of 400 million people
President Bio outlined WAIIS as a platform to consolidate a regional market of more than 400 million people and to mobilise businesses from West Africa and across the world to deepen trade, investment and economic cooperation. “West Africa is very serious about ECOWAS, and ECOWAS has been around for 50 years. But in those 50 years we have not done enough to integrate and build a consolidated market,” President Bio said. “We must bring together a common market that serves the more than 400 million people we have. That is why I am mobilising the private sector in West Africa and around the world to come together and get serious about a free market in West Africa.”
In emphasizing the need for execution, President Bio called on the Private Sector Advisory Board to “transform ideas into partnerships, partnerships into investments, and investments into lasting prosperity for our continent.” With the Summit less than two months away, the President called on the Board to move from advocacy to active mobilisation- “engaging prospective investors directly, matching them with viable projects, and identifying the financing gaps, policy decisions and other interventions required to move transactions forward.”
Mr. Tony Elumelu, co-chair and host, said the initiative reflected the President’s determination to make his leadership of ECOWAS count. “When he became Chairman of the ECOWAS Heads of State, His Excellency decided to make a significant and impactful difference, and he decided to mobilise the private sector,” Mr. Elumelu said. “He approached us, one by one. He wants his tenure to be impactful, and he wants all of us to come together. He has brought his team to Lagos for the sole purpose of letting us plan how, through our various businesses and enterprises, we can work together to transform West Africa. That is what we are committed to.”
Speaking on behalf of the African private sector, he added: “We are happy that our political leaders are beginning to bring all of us together so that we can be much more impactful. Today is about the talk that leads to action. This is consistent with our aspirations to create jobs for our young people. No one in this sub-region needs to be poor. We have all it takes to be prosperous, and we hope this marks the beginning of that prosperity for all.”
Board members endorsed the approach and committed to mobilising capital alongside the region’s leading financial institutions — including the Africa Finance Corporation, Afreximbank, Africa50, and the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO) — each represented on the Board.
“We received 170 project submissions and have selected 26 real projects worth more than $10 billion from over ten countries. By Freetown on 17–18 November, we expect that portfolio to reach $15 billion or more. This is not a one-off. We will keep tracking whether the investment flows arrive and what makes them happen,” said Hon. Dr Kandeh Kolleh Yumkella, Special Envoy for the West Africa Integration and Investment Summit (WAIIS) 2026 and Chairman of the Presidential Initiative on Climate Change, Renewable Energy and Food Security (PI-CREF).
The private sector responds
For the first time, the global megatrends of energy security, food security, minerals, and demographics all meet in Africa, and integration is how we unlock that market. Plans succeed only when they outlast leaders. We are committed to sustaining this initiative well beyond the summit,” says Samaila Zubairu, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Africa Finance Corporation (AFC).
Oliver Alawuba, Managing Director and Group CEO of United Bank for Africa (UBA) underscored that “Dangote Refinery’s success shows what domestic capital can do: Nigerian and regional banks financed it. With UBA in nine West African countries outside Nigeria, we stand ready to mobilise the resources needed for bankable projects.”
Representing Aliko Dangote, who had earlier taken President Bio on a conducted tour of his Petroleum Refinery, at Ibeju – Lekki, Lagos, Dr. Mahmud Hassan, Group Chief Economist – Dangote Group stressed that “power is the binding constraint on West Africa’s industrialisation. Through the Power ECOWAS Initiative, the ECOWAS Business Council will build a regional power corridor financed by domestic capital, so that where one country’s value chain stops, the next country’s begins.”
Africa’s greatest opportunity lies in transforming our resources into industries, infrastructure and lasting economic value. WAIIS embodies a vision I firmly believe in mobilizing capital, strengthening regional integration and translating Africa’s potential into bankable investments. I commend His Excellency, President Julius Maada Bio, for championing this initiative and thank him for personally engaging with private-sector leaders in Nigeria. His leadership demonstrates the commitment required to turn ambition into meaningful economic progress.” said Adewale Tinubu, CON, Group Chief Executive, Oando PLC.
“West Africa must move beyond potential and emerge as a leading global economic hub. Through WAIIS, the private sector is converting that potential into investment and impact, driven by innovation, industrialisation, and shared prosperity,” said Apostle Folorunso Alakija, Executive Vice Chair, FA Oil Limited.
“This is not about speeches; it is about developing projects. Afreximbank sets aside up to $5 million per transaction for project preparation. Working with partner lenders and local banks, we aim to grow the pool of bankable projects across the region,” Kudakwashe Matereke, Director- Regional Operations, Anglophone Africa, Afreximbank.
Governments must match private ambition
Board members stressed that private sector ambition must be matched by decisive government action. “Governments must provide the policy certainty, regulatory efficiency and security required to give investors the confidence to commit capital for the long term, emphasized Mr. Elumelu.”
Governor Sanwo-Olu thanked President Bio and Mr. Elumelu for driving the initiative and underscored the importance of industrialisation and free movement of goods and services in building a truly integrated West African market. “When we create that single platform where we can integrate and work together, then investors can come in. At the end of the day, it is business to business. As political leaders, our role is to create that environment and give the assurances that we are ready, and we are ready for business.”
The meeting reaffirmed a shared conviction: West Africa has the scale, resources, talent and entrepreneurial capacity to become one of the world’s most dynamic economic regions and the Summit in November must deliver transactions, not declarations.