Energy trade, strategic minerals, agribusiness and digital transformation are emerging as key investment priorities for West Africa as regional leaders and business executives seek to accelerate economic integration.
The priorities were discussed at the inaugural physical meeting of the West Africa Integration and Investment Summit (WAIIS) Private Sector Advisory Board in Lagos, hosted by Heirs Holdings Chairman Tony O. Elumelu.
Sierra Leone President Julius Maada Bio attended the meeting, urging investors and businesses to translate the region’s economic potential into productive enterprises, industrial development and employment.
Bio, the immediate past Chair of the ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government, said WAIIS would help strengthen cooperation within a market of more than 400 million people while attracting capital from regional and international investors.
“We are partners in execution, let us transform ideas into partnerships, partnerships into investments, and investments into lasting prosperity for our continent,” he said.
The president warned that economic potential alone would not generate prosperity unless businesses developed competitive industries, established regional value chains and created employment.
Elumelu backed the initiative, saying the private sector had a responsibility to invest in industries capable of supporting long-term economic growth and expanding opportunities for young people.
He pledged to support efforts to mobilise African and international capital, including through collaboration with major financial institutions such as the Africa Finance Corporation, Afreximbank, United Bank for Africa and Ecobank.
The discussions also focused on the need for businesses to expand beyond domestic markets and pool financial resources, expertise and capabilities to compete more effectively across borders.
Elumelu said the private sector’s role must be supported by governments that provide policy certainty, regulatory efficiency and security, conditions he described as necessary to encourage long-term investment.
Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu highlighted industrialisation and the free movement of goods and services as essential elements of an integrated regional market. He called on political leaders to establish an enabling environment for businesses to invest, manufacture and trade across national boundaries.
The summit’s focus on energy and industrialisation is intended to encourage investment that supports productive capacity, while strategic minerals offer opportunities to develop commercially viable industries around the region’s resources. Agribusiness and digital transformation complete the four-sector agenda.
President Bio has urged members of the advisory board to intensify preparations by identifying investors, connecting them to viable projects and addressing financing gaps and policy obstacles before the summit.
WAIIS will take place on November 17–18, 2026, at the Julius Maada Bio International Conference Centre in Lungi, Sierra Leone. The event will convene heads of state, investors and business leaders to advance investment and economic cooperation.
The advisory board includes leading figures from manufacturing, banking, energy, investment and minerals, among them Aliko Dangote, Apostle Folorunso Alakija, Samuel Dossou-Aworet, George Elombi, Abdul Samad Rabiu, Wale Tinubu and Samaila Zubairu.
Other members are Africa50 Chief Executive Alain Ebobissé, BCEAO Governor Jean-Claude Kassi Brou, Paulo Gomes, Benedict Okey Oramah and Habib Yérim Sow.
The summit aims to give practical direction to regional integration by bringing governments, financiers and businesses together around projects capable of generating trade, investment and employment across West Africa.
