It is an honour to welcome you all—fellow Heads of State, distinguished guests, delegates, and partners—to the inaugural West Africa Economic Summit. Your presence here signals our shared commitment to shaping a new economic future for our region.

We gather at a decisive moment. Today is not about celebrating how far we’ve come but forging a new path that leaves behind fragmentation and missed opportunities and moves us toward deeper integration, collective action, and shared prosperity.

West Africa is one of the last great frontiers of economic growth. Yet opportunity alone does not guarantee transformation. Opportunity is not destiny. We must earn it through vision, integration, policy coherence, collaboration, and capital alignment.

Intra-regional trade remains under 10%—a challenge we can no longer afford to ignore. The low trade is not due to a failure of will but a coordination failure. The global economy will not wait for West Africa to get its act together, and neither should we. Rather than competing in isolation or relying on external partners, we must strengthen our regional value chains, invest in infrastructure, and coordinate our policies.

Our region’s greatest asset is its youthful population. However, this demographic promise can quickly become a liability if not matched by investments in education, digital infrastructure, innovation, and productive enterprise. For example, Nigeria invests in skills development, digital connectivity, and youth empowerment. But no one country can do this alone. Our prosperity depends on regional supply chains, energy networks, and data frameworks. We must design them together — or they will collapse separately.

From the Lagos-Abidjan Highway and West African Power Pool to digital and creative industry initiatives, our joint projects demonstrate what is possible when we work together. But we must do more. We must move from declarations to concrete deals; from policy frameworks to practical implementation.

Let us also recognise that Africa was left behind in previous industrial revolutions. We cannot afford to miss the next one. Our rare minerals power tomorrow’s green technologies—yet it is not enough to be resource-rich; we must become value-chain smart and invest in local processing and regional manufacturing. The era of pit to port must end. We must turn our mineral wealth into domestic economic value—jobs, technology, and manufacturing.

The fundamental transformation will not come solely from government but from unleashing our people’s entrepreneurial spirit. Governments must provide the right environment—law, order, and market-friendly policies—while the private sector drives growth.

Our task is to find new and effective ways to invest in our collective future, improve the business climate, and create opportunities for our youth and women.

Let us emerge from this summit with actionable outcomes: a renewed commitment to ease of doing business, enhanced intra-regional trade, improved infrastructure connectivity, and innovative ideas that move our people from poverty to prosperity. Let us build a West Africa that is investable, competitive, and resilient—one that leads with vision, responsibility, and unity.

This is the new West African proposition. Let us make it real, let us make it bankable.

Thank you