West Africa's investors pick 26 projects worth over $10bn for a November summit

Lagos — West African business leaders and financiers have identified 26 investment projects worth more than $10 billion to present at the first West Africa Integration and Investment Summit (WAIIS), to be held in Sierra Leone on 17 and 18 November, BusinessDay reports.

The projects were picked from 170 submissions from more than ten countries. Kandeh Yumkella, the summit's special envoy, said the portfolio could reach $15 billion or more by the time of the summit, and that organisers will track whether money actually flows. "This is not a one-off," he said.

Four priority sectors

• Energy trade and industrialisation
• Strategic minerals
• Agribusiness
• Digital transformation

The figures were announced after the summit's private-sector advisory board met in Lagos on 13 October. The board is co-chaired by Sierra Leone's president, Julius Maada Bio, and Tony Elumelu, chairman of Heirs Holdings, and includes the Africa Finance Corporation, Afreximbank, Africa50 and the regional central bank, BCEAO. Afreximbank sets aside up to $5 million per deal to help prepare projects.

What leaders said

• Bio said West Africa has not made enough progress towards a common market in ECOWAS's 50 years, and called for one serving more than 400 million people.
• Elumelu said the focus must move "from talk to action" and that governments must provide policy certainty, efficient regulation and security.
• Lagos governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu called for free movement of goods and services.
• UBA's chief executive, Oliver Alawuba, pointed to the Dangote refinery, financed by Nigerian and regional banks, as proof of what local capital can do.
• Dangote Group's chief economist, Mahmud Hassan, said poor electricity is a major obstacle and described a planned regional power corridor financed with domestic capital.

Source: BusinessDay, reporting by Faith Omoboye, 16 October 2026.