Chairman of Heirs Holdings, Tony Elumelu, has met with Sierra Leonean President Julius Maada Bio in Lagos as West African leaders and private-sector players seek to deepen regional economic integration and unlock new investment opportunities.
The meeting focused on mobilising private capital, advancing investment-ready projects and strengthening economic cooperation ahead of the West Africa Investment and Industrialisation Summit (WAIIS), scheduled to hold in Freetown, Sierra Leone, in November.
President Bio, who is leading the initiative, said West Africa could no longer afford to spend decades discussing integration without taking practical steps towards building a functioning regional market.
“For 50 years, we haven’t done much to integrate and have a consolidated market,” Bio said, stressing the need to build a common market capable of serving more than 400 million people.
The Sierra Leonean president said he was mobilising the private sector in West Africa and internationally to support a stronger free-market framework across the region.
The engagement comes at a time when governments and businesses across West Africa are under pressure to attract investment, create jobs and reduce structural barriers that continue to limit intra-regional trade and industrial development.
Elumelu, who is also a prominent advocate of private-sector-led African development, welcomed the effort to bring governments and businesses closer together.
He said stronger regional cooperation could help unlock the continent’s resources, entrepreneurial capacity and human capital while creating opportunities for millions of young Africans.
The initiative is also being supported by Lagos State, with Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu stressing the importance of producing goods and services that Africans can consume while creating a larger market for businesses across the continent.
The WAIIS initiative is expected to focus on four broad areas: energy trade and industrial development, strategic minerals and natural resources, agribusiness and food systems, and digital transformation and connectivity.
Organisers are targeting an investment pipeline estimated at more than $180 billion, with the summit expected to bring together heads of government, investors, development finance institutions, business leaders and project owners.
The broader objective is to move regional integration beyond political declarations by connecting major infrastructure and economic priorities with actual capital, investment partnerships and bankable projects.
For West Africa, the challenge remains turning the region’s large consumer market and abundant natural resources into sustained industrial growth, stronger intra-African trade and better economic opportunities for its rapidly growing population.
The WAIIS meeting is therefore being positioned not simply as another investment conference, but as an attempt to link political commitment with private capital and practical projects capable of accelerating regional integration.