Sierra Leone President Julius Maada Bio and Heirs Holdings Chairman Tony Elumelu have called for increased private sector investment to accelerate economic integration and development across West Africa.
The duo made the call in Lagos during a meeting of the private sector advisory board of the West Africa Integration and Investment Summit (WAIIS), ahead of the inaugural edition of the summit in Sierra Leone.
Bio, who is the immediate past chairman of the ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government, said West Africa must move beyond discussions about regional integration and focus on implementing initiatives that would deliver economic benefits to its people.
He said the WAIIS would seek to harness the region's market of more than 400 million people by promoting trade, investment and economic cooperation among businesses within West Africa and international investors.
“We are partners in execution — let us transform ideas into partnerships, partnerships into investments, and investments into lasting prosperity for our continent,” Bio said.
The Sierra Leonean president said the region's natural and economic advantages would only translate into prosperity if they were converted into productive businesses, competitive industries and regional value chains.
“But potential is not prosperity. Our task is to convert these advantages into productive enterprises, competitive industries, regional value chains, jobs and wealth,” he said.
The meeting, hosted by Elumelu, brought together private sector and financial institution leaders to examine opportunities in four key areas: energy trade and industrialisation, strategic minerals, agribusiness and digital transformation.
Elumelu said African businesses must increasingly adopt a regional outlook by combining capital, expertise and capabilities to build companies capable of competing on a larger scale.
He said he was committed to helping mobilise African and international capital for strategic projects across the region, alongside institutions including the Africa Finance Corporation (AFC), Afreximbank, United Bank for Africa (UBA) and Ecobank.
According to him, stronger private sector participation would not only deepen regional integration but also create jobs and expand economic opportunities for Africa's young population.
“We have all it takes to be prosperous,” Elumelu said.
He, however, noted that private capital alone could not deliver the required transformation without supportive government policies.
“Governments must provide the policy certainty, regulatory efficiency and security required to give investors the confidence to commit capital for the long term,” he said.
Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu also backed calls for greater economic integration, stressing the importance of industrialisation and the free movement of goods and services across West African borders.
Sanwo-Olu said governments had a responsibility to create the conditions that would give businesses the confidence to invest, produce and trade across the sub-region.
The WAIIS is scheduled to take place on November 17 and 18, 2026, at the Julius Maada Bio International Conference Centre in Lungi, Sierra Leone.
The summit is expected to attract heads of government, investors, business leaders and financial institutions to discuss investment opportunities and strategies for expanding regional cooperation in energy, strategic minerals, agribusiness and digital transformation.
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