By Kolawole Ojebisi
The President of African Development Bank (AfDB), Dr Akinwumi Adesina, has revealed how Nigeria secured $7.6bn in investment interests at the Africa Investment Forum 2024.
Akinwumi who made this announcement in a in a post on his X (formerly Twitter) account on Sunday said the event where the deal was sealed took place in Rabat, Morocco, from December 4 to 6, 2024.
Dr Adesina expressed optimism about the potential impact of the investment interests, highlighting the presence of several Nigerian state governors at the forum
“I am delighted the Africa Investment Forum 2024 mobilised $7.6bn of investment interest for Nigeria. It was great to have several state governors: Lagos, Kaduna, Kastina, Kwara and Plateau, and (later) Ogun. We will keep working to support and boost investments to Nigeria,” his post read.
The Africa Investment Forum, established by the African Development Bank and its partners, is a platform that seeks to fast-track investments into projects across the continent.
Last year’s event attracted over 2,300 participants, including global investors, African business leaders, and government officials.
According to Adesina, the forum facilitated $29.2bn in total investment interests for various projects across Africa, ranging from energy and infrastructure to agriculture and technology.
The $7.6bn investment interest for Nigeria signals a strong vote of confidence in the country’s economic potential and the reforms being implemented to attract foreign capital.
Earlier, the African Development Bank Group said in a statement in December that it facilitated $2.2bn in capital mobilisation for its Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zones Nigeria Phase II project during the Africa Investment Forum.
In the statement, Senior Special Adviser to the African Development Bank’s President Banji Oyelaran-Oyeyinka was quoted as saying, “The Nigeria SAPZ phase 2 presidential boardroom has raised $2.2bn in investment interest from global investors.
“This is far more than we have raised for SAPZs across all the 12 African countries covered by the programme. SAPZ is an idea of which time has come. This is the time to industrialize Africa!”
The statement further noted that at a presidential boardroom meeting on December 4, 2024, governors from Nigerian states, representatives of multilateral development organisations, members of the diplomatic corps, and private sector investors pledged their support for scaling up financing to Nigeria’s Federal and State Governments for the SAPZ initiative.
