The President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Dr Akinwumi Adesina, has announced that Nigeria attracted $7.6 billion in investment interests at the Africa Investment Forum 2024, held in Rabat, Morocco, from December 4 to 6 2024.
Dr Adesina expressed optimism about the potential impact of the investment interests, and lauded the participation of several Nigerian state governors at the forum.
Writing in a post on his X account on Saturday, Adesina said: “I am delighted the Africa Investment Forum 2024 mobilised $7.6 billion 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,” he said.
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 $29.2 billion in total investment interests for various projects in Africa, spanning energy, infrastructure, agriculture, and technology sectors.
The $7.6 billion investment interest for Nigeria is seen as a strong vote of confidence in the Nigerian economic potential and the reforms being implemented to attract foreign capital.
The report by Punch newspaper on Sunday said that the AfDB Group announced in a statement in December last year that it had facilitated $2.2 billion in capital mobilisation for the Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zones (SAPZ) Nigeria Phase II project during the Africa Investment Forum.
The statement by 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 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.
GIK/APA