President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has called for greater economic integration in West Africa, warning that businesses across the region cannot thrive if markets remain fragmented.
Speaking at the West Africa Economic Summit, Tinubu lamented that intra-regional trade in West Africa remains low at just 10 percent, stressing that this challenge can no longer be overlooked. “Intra-regional trade remains at 10%, a challenge you can no longer ignore. The low trade is not due to a failure of will, but a failure of coordination,” he said.
He described West Africa as one of the last great frontiers of economic growth, but noted that opportunity alone is not enough to drive transformation. “Opportunities, not just wishful thinking, we must earn it through vision, integration, policy coherence, collaboration, and capital alignment,” Tinubu said.
The President called for collective action through investment in infrastructure, coordinated policies, and strengthened regional value chains. He emphasised that the region’s youthful population is its greatest asset, but warned that without investments in education, digital infrastructure, innovation, and enterprise, the demographic advantage could become a burden.
“Our prosperity depends on regional supply chains, energy networks and data frameworks. We must design them together, or they will collapse separately,” he said.
Highlighting the success of regional collaboration, Tinubu cited the Lagos-Abidjan highway and the West African Power Pool as examples of what can be achieved when countries in the region work together. “We must move from declarations to concrete deals, from policy frameworks to practical implementation,” he urged.
He stressed the need for West Africa to become more competitive and resilient by investing in local processing and regional manufacturing to unlock the region’s vast mineral resources. “The era of ‘from pit to port’ must end. We must turn our mineral wealth into domestic economic value, jobs, technology, and manufacture,” Tinubu said.
Calling for actionable outcomes from the summit, the President urged a renewed commitment to improving the ease of doing business, enhancing intra-regional trade, upgrading infrastructure, and embracing innovative strategies to drive growth. “Let us build a West Africa that is investable, competitive and resilient, one that lives with vision, responsibility and unity,” he concluded.
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Yusuf Tuggar, echoed the President’s position, stressing the region’s vast potential. “We’re here today to build on that enabling environment. We’re not reinventing the wheel. As an economic community, West Africa enjoys freedom of movement and a framework to facilitate trade, pool electricity, and integrate transport corridors,” he said.
Tuggar, however, warned that the region’s economic trajectory is unsustainable, citing that only 8.6 percent of West Africa’s $166 billion in exports in 2024 remained within the region. He added that imports are similarly skewed, with the majority coming from China, India, the United States, and the European Union, while West Africa continues to export mostly raw materials.
He called for more efforts to bring informal businesses into the formal economy, leveraging economies of scale and efficiency to drive growth. “As governments and as a region, we need to do more to make it easy to bring that activity into the formal sector,” he said.
Tuggar also emphasised the need for investment in local processing and infrastructure. “Bring that investment, bring that local processing, let’s see our transport, economic infrastructure and other building blocks for prosperity grow,” he said.
He expressed optimism for the future, citing West Africa’s natural resources and youthful population. “West Africa can and should be part of this. I read a couple of weeks ago in an American newspaper that China had a monopoly on some of the rare minerals vital to the new industry in which the future will be built. Not so. We have those same minerals here in Nigeria and across the region.”
Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Mrs. Jumoke Oduwole, also addressed the summit, declaring that West Africa is poised to become a formidable economic bloc, capable of attracting capital, scaling industries, and delivering measurable cross-border results.
She highlighted key reforms under President Tinubu, including exchange rate adjustments, removal of fuel subsidies, and Nigeria’s alignment with the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). “These reforms are yielding results, with Nigeria’s non-oil exports rising to $1.8 billion in Q1, a 24% increase over the same period last year,” she said.
Oduwole listed several initiatives showcasing Nigeria’s commitment to regional integration, including the reset of Nigeria’s AfCFTA tariff concessions, its designation as Africa’s co-champion on digital trade, and the launch of the National Talent Export Programme (NATEP), which has placed over 2,000 young Nigerians in international remote jobs.
She also announced the opening of a new air cargo trade corridor with Eastern African countries, in collaboration with Uganda Air and UNDP, and the launch of the National Export Trading Company—an ambitious public-private partnership aimed at aggregating, financing, and facilitating Nigerian commodity exports competitively.
According to her, this initiative will create pathways for farmers and MSMEs to access regional and global markets. She added that nearly $1 billion in live transactions were showcased in the summit’s deal room, with over $400 million already advancing into investor discussions.
Commending the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for organising the summit, Oduwole said, “West Africa is open for business. The world is watching and is here with us. Let this summit be a prosperous turning point for us all.”
