Business stakeholders are targeting investment deals worth more than 500 million dollars across key sectors at the upcoming World Integrated Economic Growth Initiative Investment Summit scheduled to hold on February 25 and 26 in Lagos.
Speaking at a press conference in Lagos, the Lead Consultant of the WIEG Investment Summit, Bassey Essien, disclosed that the summit has already secured commitments from about 20 frontline investors, mainly from Malaysia and other Asian countries. He said the event is designed to unlock sustainable capital for Nigerian enterprises struggling to scale due to limited access to structured funding.
According to Essien, the summit is the first in a series and will focus on Nigeria’s next frontier for economic transformation. He described Malaysia as one of Nigeria’s major trading partners and noted growing interest from Asian investors in Nigeria’s emerging sectors.
Essien explained that the summit would bring together policymakers, private capital providers, and investment ready enterprises in a structured and private sector driven engagement. He said pre screened MSMEs, cooperatives, and SMEs across sectors such as the creative industry, agriculture, finance, energy transition, and aviation would be presented to investors.
The creative industry was identified as a major focus area, contributing about 2.5 percent to Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product. Essien said investors were particularly interested in music, film, fashion, media, advertising, and technology driven creative platforms.
On energy transition, he said renewable energy solutions were attracting strong interest as rising power costs continue to affect productivity nationwide. He added that scaling renewable energy would help reduce production costs and improve competitiveness.
Essien also highlighted aviation as a major opportunity, noting Nigeria’s lack of local aircraft maintenance and air cargo infrastructure. He said developing local capacity would significantly reduce operational costs for airlines.
The second day of the summit will focus on deal making, featuring sector based roundtables involving investors, business leaders, financial advisers, lawyers, and policymakers. Post event deal tracking will also be implemented with support from the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission to ensure commitments translate into real investments.
Leave a comment