Tinubu’s regional agenda offers investors clearer route into Nigeria – Ahmadu, Masha tell USAFRICA Business Week

The United Nations General Assembly high-level week hosted a USAFRICA Business Week® gathering in New York, where Nigeria's Minister of State for Regional Development, Hon. Uba Maigari Ahmadu, shared President Bola Ahmed Tinubu's regional development agenda. USAFRICA Business Week®, organized by the Pacetas Agency, serves as a platform for U.S.–Africa business and policy engagement during the UN General Assembly week.

Gbenga Omotayo, the Executive Director of the event, explained that the platform aims to serve as a gateway to regional trade, offering market insights, strategic dialogue, and deal-focused engagement opportunities. Hon. Ahmadu and Dr Mariam Temitope Masha, a Senior Special Assistant to the President on Regional Development Programmes, emphasized the importance of coordinated planning in helping investors identify where to build, who to work with, and how projects can reach a market larger than a single state.

The duo highlighted Nigeria's Ministry of Regional Development, which now oversees development commissions serving the country's regions, including the North Central, North West, North East, South East, South West, Niger Delta, and South South. These regional structures can help reframe gaps in roads, power, agriculture, and other infrastructure, presenting a more coherent development picture.

To illustrate their point, the speakers used the example of a processing plant. Although the factory site might seem like a milestone, essential factors like reliable energy, farm supplies, transport to other states, and access to buyers significantly impact the investment's success. The speakers connected Nigeria's domestic regional planning to President Tinubu's broader West African economic agenda, which aims to make ECOWAS a production base with more manufacturing, regional value chains, and trade among neighboring countries.

Additionally, Tinubu's administration has emphasized the need for more efficient borders, digital customs processes, and the adoption of the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System to facilitate easier African trade. The regional coordination could show how these pieces connect, identify where public investment is needed, and determine which private partners can participate.

For prospective partners, the message was practical: assess a Nigerian project by considering the supplies it can draw from neighboring states, the infrastructure it requires, and the customers it can reach. Better regional planning and trade systems could reduce friction, although each proposal would still require its own commercial and regulatory due diligence.

USAFRICA's exchange provided a national counterpart to its "Investing in Abuja" session, focusing on how public priorities can be translated into projects that investors can evaluate and benefit Nigerian businesses and communities.