NIGERIA has attracted $7.6bn in investment interests at the Africa Investment Forum 2024, held in Rabat, Morocco, from 4 to 6 December 2024.
The announcement was made by the President of the African Development Bank, Dr Akinwumi Adesina, in a post on his X (formerly Twitter) account on Saturday.
Adesina expressed optimism about the potential impact of the investment interests, highlighting the participation 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 & boost investments to Nigeria,” his post read.
The Africa Investment Forum, established by the African Development Bank and its partners, serves as a platform to accelerate investments into projects across the continent.
Last year’s event attracted over 2,300 participants, including global investors, African business leaders, and government officials. The forum facilitated $29.2bn in total investment interests for various projects in Africa, spanning energy, infrastructure, agriculture, and technology sectors.
The $7.6bn investment interest for Nigeria is seen as 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 announced in a December statement that it had facilitated $2.2bn in capital mobilisation for the Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zones (SAPZ) Nigeria Phase II project during the Africa Investment Forum.
In the statement, Banji Oyelaran-Oyeyinka, Senior Special Adviser to the AfDB President, said, “The Nigeria SAPZ Phase II 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 whose time has come. This is the time to industrialise Africa!”
The statement also noted that at a presidential boardroom meeting on 4 December 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.
The initiative, described as ambitious, aims to transform Nigeria’s agricultural sector by establishing agro-industrial hubs. Building on the achievements of its first phase, the programme seeks to enhance productivity, improve food security, raise living standards, and create jobs across the country.